



' **je: SS^ 


^< 


^Q^/v^^ 









R5 ^^:^^5e^^^^^c<:'C.<r 









i;:'.:^5 












^^:"^ 






W^'Cl 






^m 






CC'C 






If LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

I [SMITHSONIAN DEPOSIT.] ^ ^ 



t ^^# 



.Bl 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. | 



eccc 






^^B^mM 






^8 









:oE: ^ 



c«: 






<ZCC 

r: ex 


















«I*^'^^ ^pSK cm:^ 



^ -^■ 






^^■^ 









^^"^^^^fc 



--«:- <^«:^.^^- 









cs:v<djC 









5 C^CTig^ 



-|€®!^ 






.<^:<^a^sm:^ 






:?^3E^ 






:^^ 



^^ 















S^«^ 



OKJijC'C 









<z:<x:<x:<- 






<::c jMCCKx: 

/<c c: <rcr cc: 

docc: cc 

^\. <r c : c: ■ <: - 






KNOX COLLEGE, 



Y WHOM 



FOUN^DED ^ND ENDOM^ED ; 



ALSO , 



A REVIEW 



A. t>a.tsa:ip:e3:tu:eit eisttitleid 



RIGHTS OF CONGREGATIONALISTS IN KNOX COLLEGE." 



JBY J. ^".B^^:jLEY. 



y 

CHICAGO: 

PRESS & TRIBUNE BOOK & JOB PRINTING OFFICE, 51 CLARK ST. 

1860. 



9?' ■ 



s:^ 



INTRODUCTION. 



Galesburg, III., July, 1859. 
Rev. J. W. Bailey : 

Sir : The Congregational General Association of Illinois, at their 
last meeting, adopted, and have since published an elaborate report, 
presented by a committee previously appointed, entitled "Rights of 
Congregationalists in Knox College." That report professes to give 
the results of a thorough investigation by the committee, of the facts 
in the case. You know, as we all know, that no such investigation 
was made, and that the statements of the report, taken at second- 
hand, are erroneous in all important particulars. Believing that 
such a document, if not publicly disproved, will do much injury to 
the College, and injustice to the Board of Trustees, we, as resident 
members of that Board, earnestly request you, at your earliest con- 
venience, to prepare a full and well attested statement of the origin 
and endowment of Knox College, with special reference to the 
denominational character, and the purposes and intentions of its 
founders. We wish, furthermore, that you would review and expose 
the fallacies, and misrepresentations of the pamphlet above named, 
so far as a vindication of the past action of the Board, and the 
future interests of the College may seem to demand. By complying 
with this request, you will do an important service to the Institution, 
and confer a lasting benefit upon the community, who are interested 
and anxious to know the truth. 

J. G. Sanburn, 

s. f. dolbear, 

■ Geo. W. Gale, 

]^. H. LOSEY, 
J. BUNCE, 

H. Curtis, 
J. Bull, 
SiLVANus Ferris. 

The above note sufficiently explains the reasons which led to 
the preparation of this pamphlet. Many things have been writ- 
ten of late concerning Knox College, by various parties, none 
of whom have based their statements upon a careful personal 
examination of those documents relating to the matter, which 
alone can be relied upon as containing the exact truth. Some 



4- KNOX COLLEGE. 

have written from memory, which, however faithful it may be 
in presenting main .facts, cannot but prove treacherous some- 
times in regard to minute details. Others, including almost 
all who have written against the College, have been content to 
put in print as matters of undeniable fact, vagrant rumors and un- 
founded conclusions, favorable to their 23uipose, such as always cir- 
culate through every community which is at all agitated by the dis- 
cussion of any important question. In discharging the duty im- 
posed upon me by the Trustees of Knox College, whose names are 
attached to the above note, I determined upon these two things : 
First, to examine every book and paper belonging to the College, or 
to be found elsewhere, which related to its history from its origin 
until now. Second, to select and publish such portions of these 
documents as were necessary to enable the public to form for them- 
selves an independent judgment of the nature of their testimony. 
In performing the first part of this labor, all the records and reports 
and correspondence of the original association by whom the College 
was founded, and of their agents and committees, have been care- 
fully read. The records of the College, and the many reports of 
various committees of its Board, from its organization until the 
present time, have also been read. The books and the reports of 
the Treasurer have been examined on all the points involved in the 
duty assigned me. The records of the First Presbyterian Church 
m Galesburg, which was the first Church established here, have 
been read with great care, from the time the first meetings were 
held with reference to an organization, down to the last year. 
Much miscellaneous matter, bearing upon the history of the College, 
has also received an attentive perusal. In all this labor, the sole 
object has been to make myself personally familiar with all the facts 
Avhich I desired to present to the public, and thus to escape the 
charge of having narrated anything important upon second-hand 
testimony. I have first examined the documents upon which all 
my statements are based in every instance, and then have given 
these documents to the public that they may test the accuracy of 
my statements. Only in this way can the public be sure that they 
are not misled. It is not individual opinions upon controverted 
points that is asked for by those interested in this matter, so much 
as the facts upon which all correct opinions must be based. With 
the facts in their possession, all can form their own opinions. With- 
out these, the public must always remain in uncertainty, especially 
when opinions are divided. 



INTEODUCTION. O 

The publication of the pamphlet has been delayed beyond the 
time when it was first promised. This has arisen from the pressure 
of other duties, and from the amount of labor involved in such an 
examination as I had undertaken, which has been much greater than 
any, one can imagine who has never been engaged in a similar 
work. The pamphlet is now sent forth to the public with the earn- 
est desire that it may prove instrumental in correcting the many 
errors which have of late been Avidely circulated concerning the 
College. That man is not to be envied who can take pleasure in 
doing injury to such an institution as Knox College. The extraor- 
dinary efforts to impair its usefulness which have been made of late by 
more persons than one, indicate a state of feeling on this subject 
which cannot be regarded as praiseworthy. The Colleges of the State 
of Illinois are among its chief agencies for securing the highest 
prosperity of the people. Whoever injures them commits a great 
wrong against the whole State. The public will not fail to hold to 
a strict accountability, any man, or any class of men, Avho for selfish 
ends decry and misrepresent and seriously injure their Colleges. 

J. W. Bailey. 

Galesburg, III., March, 1860. 



The undersigned, Secretary and Treasurer of the Board of Trust 
of Knox College, have examined carefully all the references to, and 
extracts from, the records and other documents in our possession, 
made by Rev. J. W. Bailey, in a pamphlet entitled " Knox Col- 
lege, etc., etc," and we hereby certify that such references and ex- 
tracts are strictly correct. 

S. F. DOLBEAK, 

Secretary of the Board of Trust. 

O. S. Pitcher, 

Treasurer. 



KNOX COLLEGE. 



ITS ORIGIK 



Knox College, in Galesbarg, Illinois, was founded on the 1t\i 
day of January, in the year 1836, by a number of persons then 
living in the State of New York, who were associated together as 
Subscribers to a Plan for establishing literary institutions in the 
West. Those Subscribers met on that day, in Whitesboro', N". Y., 
and there, in accordance with their Plan, organized the College, 
appointed its Board of Trustees, and then donated to it several 
thousand acres of land lying in Illinois, where Galesburg now is, 
which they had purchased solely as an endowment for the College. 
The sale of these lands has furnished nearly all the money which 
has been required to meet the current expenses of the Institution, 
including the College proper, an Academy, a Preparatory Depart- 
ment, and a Female Seminary, and also to erect large and costly 
buildings ; and which has so enriched its treasury that it is now one 
of the wealthiest Colleges in our land. The present noble endowment 
of this College has been derived almost wholly from the liberality 
of its founders. 

The credit of the whole enterprise is due in the first instance to 
the Rev. George W. Gale, D. D., a Presbyterian, from whom the 
Plan, in all its details, originated, and to whose persevering efforts 
and many personal sacrifices it owed its consummation. His Plan, 
in its main features, was to secure by subscription, money enough 
to purchase in some desirable location in the Western States, gov- 
ernment land to the amount of one township, or thirty-six square 
miles. Out of this land when purchased, enough was to be reserved 
for the site of a village, and also of the College which was to be 
organized. The remainder of the land was to be divided into farms 
of convenient size, and appraised at an average value of five dollars 
an acre, which would be just four times the amount paid for it. 
At this increased valuation, the Subscribers were to be allowed to 
take farming lands to the amount of their subscription. The re- 



» KXOX COLLEGE. 

mainder was to be donated to the College. The village property 
was also to be divided into suitable building lots, and sold only to 
actual settlers. The money thus obtained was to be appropriated 
to an Academy and a Young Ladies' Seminary, so far as needed, 
and the remainder to the College. The Circular and details of the 
Plan are here published, and deserve the attentive perusal of the 
reader, as they show the enlarged views of Mr. Gale and of those 
who engaged with him in founding the College, and that the enter- 
prise was one of pure Christian benevolence. 

CIRCULAR AND PLAN. 

" The indications of Providence, as well as the requisitions of 
Christ, impose on Christians of this day peculiar obhgations to de- 
vise and execute, as far as in them lies, liberal and efficient plans 
for spreading the gospel through the world. The supj^ly of an 
evangelical and able ministry, is in the whole circle of means, con- 
fessedly the most important for the accomplishment of this end : all 
other means are the mere aids and implements of the living 
preacher. And yet, im])ortant as it is to the sustaining of the 
church, and the conversion of the world, there is reason to believe 
that the business of furnishing a devoted and efficient ministry, 
has entered less into the calculations of Christians at large, than 
any other department of benevolent effort of the present day ; 
certainly much less in proportion to its magnitude. Perhaps they 
have thought this a work peculiarly the Lord's, in which they had 
very little to do. But the language of oiu' Saviour, ' Pray ye the 
Lord of the harvest to send forth laborers,' and the fact that they 
are to be furnished, not by miracle, but by the slow process of 
education, prove, that we have much to do ; especially when we 
look at the field which our own country, to say nothing of the wide 
world, spreads out before us ; a field ' white for the harvest.' 

Who that loves the souls of men can look on this field and not 
feel his heart affected, and not tax his energies to the utmost, as 
well as offer his most fervent prayers to the Lord of the harvest, 
that he would furnish the laborers ? Who that loves the institutions 
of his country, can look uj)on it without alarm, when he reflects that 
in a few, a very few years, they will be in the hands of a population 
reared in this field ; and reared, unless a mighty effort be made by 
evangelical Christians, under the forming hand of those who are no 
less the enemies of civil liberty, than of a pure gospel ? What is 
done to prevent this ruin must be done quickly. It is perfectly 
within the power of evangelical Christians in this country, under 
God, to furnish, and that speedily, all the laborers wanted on this 
field, besides doing much towards supplying the Avorld. The men 
are already furnished ; if not, ' the Lord of the harvest ' loill 



CIRCULAE AND PLAN. 9 

furnish them. Hundreds of youth of talent, and piety, and enter- 
prise, stand ready to enter upon the work of preparation, whenever 
a ' wide and eftectual door is opened ' for them. The manual 
labor system, if properly sustained and conducted, will open to 
them that door. It is peculiarly adapted not only to qualify men 
for the self-denying and arduous duties of the gospel ministry, 
especially in our new settlements and missionary fields abroad, bnt 
to call them out ; to induce them to enter upon the work of pre- 
paration. It is an important fact that while other institutions 
are many of them, greatly in want of students, these, with all 
the disadvantages under which they have to labor, are not only 
filled, but great numbers are rejected for want of means to 
accommodate them. Let institutions be established on this plan, 
having all the requisitions and facilities for profitable labor, in 
connection with the advantages for literary acquisitions enjoyed in 
our well endowed seminaries, and there will be no lack of students ; 
especially if there be added to these the means of gratuitous in- 
struction to the indigent. Let such provision be made, and 
three-fourths of the indigent young men will ask no other aid ; and 
should they ask it, the church would do them a favor to refuse 
them, and leave them to their efforts to make up the deficiency. 

It is beginning to be believed, and not without good reason, that 
females are to act a much more important part in the conversion of 
the world, than has been generally supposed ; not as preachers of 
the gospel, but as help-meets of those who are ; and as instructors 
and guides of the rising generation, not only in the nursery, but in 
the public school: it should therefore be an object of special aim 
with all who pray and labor for the conversion of the world, to 
provide for the thorough and well directed education of females. 
Experiment has already proved, that manual labor may be success- 
fully introduced into Female Seminaries, and that it is highly 
conducive to health and piety, and adapted to reduce the expenses 
of education, sufiiciently to encourage many young ladies to qualify 
themselves in such seminaries for fields of usefulness, who, without 
that encouragement would never have put forth such efforts. What 
has been done on this subject shows the importance, and proves the 
feasibility of doing much more. It is perfectly in the power of a 
few families of ^moderate property to rear up such institutions, at 
this time, in the valley of the Mississippi, on a permanent basis, 
with a great part of the endowment required, and on a liberal and 
extensive scale, with great advantage to themselves and famihes. 
Such a plan is here proposed, with the design, if it may please the 
Lord, to carry it into effect. 

PLAN. 

Let a subscription be opened for such Institutions in some part of 
the valley to be fixed upon by a majority of the Subscribers, and 
when $40,000 shall have been raised, let those who propose to settle 
in the vicinity of the Institutions meet and elect a Board of Trustees, 



10 KNOX COLLEGE. 

who shall have charge of all the funds, the appointment of officers, 
and perform other duties usually belonging to trustees of literary 
institutions. Let a committee also be appointed by the Subscribers, 
to locate the Institutions, and make a purchase of land under such 
instructions as shall be given them. 

2. Let a tract or tracts of land be purchased equal in quantity at 
least, to a town six miles square, at the government price, if it can 
be so obtained, and let this land, or so much of it as may be wanted 
by the Subscribers, be appraised at five dollars an acre, on an aver- 
age ; every Subscriber who shall purchase eighty acres, or half a 
quarter-section, to be paid for by the money subscribed, shall be 
entitled to the gratuitous instruction of one youth in the College, 
Preparatory School, or Female Seminary, for twenty-five years, 
which right may be used, rented, or sold at his pleasure. The same 
privilege shall be attached to every eighty acres thus purchased by 
original Subscribers. 

3. After paying for the land, the remainder of the fund of 40,000 
dollars, and as much more as the Board of Trustees may judge ex- 
pedient, shall be expended as soon as practicable in the erection of 
College edifices. The title of all land not deeded to the original 
settlers, shall be vested in the Board of Trustees. Mill-seats in 
the tract shall be at their disposal for the benefit of the College fund. 

4. Three contiguous sections, of 640 acres, shall be reserved for 
the purposes of the College and the village, to be appropriated as 
the Board shall order. The village shall be laid out into lots by a 
committee appointed by the Subscribers, and appraised in a manner 
similar to the farms. Those who choose may have a lot, or lots in 
the village at the same rate that the quarter sections of land are 
appraised on average, with the same right of gratuitous education 
attached. 

5. All the land purchased, except that of the village, after 
supplying the original Subscribers, shall be sold or rented, as the 
Board may deem best, for the interest of the College. . Out of this 
land and such other money as may be obtained, a fund of 50,000 
dollars should be set apart in scholarships of 400 dollars each, as a 
permanent fund, the interest of which shall be applied to defray the 
expense of tuition and room rent for pious and indigent young men 
who have the ministry in view. 

The money arising from village lots shall constitute a fund for the 
erection of a Female Seminary, and Academy, or a preparatory 
school for male youth, and for the support of teachers. If the fund 
amount to more than 50,000 dollars, it may be applied to the support 
of the College. 

6. The College to be established shall be on the manual labor plan, 
every pupil being required to labor not more than three, nor less 
than two hours a day on the farm, in the garden, or in mechanic 
shops. The course of study shall be liberal and thorough ; the 
Bible, in the original tongue, shall be made a class book ; and 
among others, there shall be a professor who shall perform the spe- 



CIRCULAR AND PLAN. 11 

clal duties of a pastor to the students connected with the College 
and preparatory school. 

7. The Female Seminary shall be under the care of a gentleman, 
as principal, who shall have the general management and spiritual 
instruction of the pupils. The iinmediate government and literary 
instruction shall chiefly be committed to ladies. The Institution 
shall be of a high order as it respects instruction, and adapted to 
give such an education as an intelligent Christian parent would 
wish ; and the instruction so directed as to qualify the pupils for the 
business of instructing, or for missionary or domestic life. The 
preservation of health by systematic exercise shall receive special 
attention. Manual labor, so far as it may be desired by the parent, 
or necessary to reduce expense for the encouragement of indigent 
pupils, shall be incorporated with it. 

8. A Theological Seminary, and Medical School, shall be estab- 
lished in connection with the College as soon as it shall be thought 
best by the Board, and funds can be raised. 

9. One half of the subscription money shall be payable when the 
sum proposed of 40,000 dollars shall have been subscribed by re- 
sponsible persons ; and the other half in one year after, with interest 
from the time the first instalment is due ; a note being given for the 
same to the Board of Trustees. 

10. These articles may be amended or altered by the Subscribers 
comprehended in the original subscription of $40,000 whenever a 
majority of them shall think best ; provided no right of property is 
infringed, and the essential constitution and design of the literary 
institutions are not changed thereby." 

With this plan Mr. Gale went almost exclusively among those of 
his personal friends who were connected with Presbyterian churches 
in Central and Eastern jSTew York, and solicited their cooperation 
in his work. In the early part of the year 1835, he had secured 
subscriptions to the amount of about twenty-one thousand dollars.* 
Although this was only a little more than one-half the amount re- 
quired to be raised by the plan, yet it was thought best, by those 
most interested, to call a meeting of the Subscribers at this time, 
in order to organize and send out at once a Committee of Explora- 
tion. That meeting was held on the sixth day of May, 1835, at 
Rome, New York. The minutes of that meeting and ot all sub- 
sequent meetings of the Subscribers to Mr. Gale's plan, are entered 

* In addition to this several persons, not Subscribers, agreed to loan the Association a few- 
thousand dollars if it should be needed. This money was tu be paid back, with Interest, as soon as 
possible. Tlie money was never required by the Association. In a statement made two years ago, 
by parlies connected with the College, this sum was added to that pledged by the Subscribers, and 
the total given at about $28,000, without indicating that a part was pledged by persons who were 
not Subscribers, and pledged only as a loan. Ihe whole sum pledged by Subscribers was, as stated 
above, only about $21,000. 



12 KNOX COLLEGE. 

in the first volume of the College Records, and are all recorded as 
having been approved by the Board of Trustees after the College 
was founded. The following are the minutes of the 

FIRST MEETING OF THE SUBSCRIBERS. 

" At a meeting of the Subscribers to the Circular of G. W. Gale, 
proposing to establish a literary institution in the Valley of the 
Mississippi, (see plan annexed to the previous page) held at the 
session-room of the 1st Presbyterian Church, in Rome, on Wednes- 
day, May 6, 1835, the following proceedings were had: 

After spending a season in prayer, the meeting was called to 
order by the api:)ointment of the Rev. John Waters, Chairman, and 
T. B. Jervis, Secretary. 

On motion of Rev. Mr. Gale, 

Mesolved^ That a committee be chosen to nominate a Prudential 
Committee. 

Besolued, That the Nominating Committee consist of Rev. Mr. 
Kellogg, Rev. Mr. Gale and Mr. Holt. 

On motion of Rev. Mr. Kellogg, 

JResolved, That Messrs. Blodget, T. B. Jervis and Stedman, be 
appointed a committee to bring before the meeting in the afternoon 
such topics of discussion as, in their opinion, should engage the 
attention of the meeting. 

Adjourned to 2 o'clock P. M. 

At 2 o'clock the meeting convened according to adjournment. 
The Committee of Nomination reported that they recommend that 
the Prudential Committee should not exceed eleven, and the follow- 
ing persons as members, with power to fill vacancies, viz : Walter 
Webb, Adams ; Nehemiah West, Ira ; Thomas Gilbert, Rome ; 
John C. Smith, Utica; G. W. Gale, Whitesboro'; H. H. Kellogg, 
Clinton. 

The report was accepted and adopted. 

liesolved^ That the Prudential Committee procure the exploration 
of the country lying in the States of Indiana and Illinois, between 
the 40th and 42nd degrees of north latitude, Avith reference to 
selecting the best location in the district for the projected literary 
Institution. , 

Hesolved^ That an Exploring Committee of three be appointed by 
the Prudential Committee. 

Hesolved, That the Prudential Committee be authorized to assume 
the expense that has been incurred, and also that wliich it is neces- 
sary to incur in raising the fund of forty thousand dollars. 

Mesoloed, That the Prudential Committee be authorized to incur 
such expense as may be necessary to accomplish the objects of their 
appointment. 

Mesolved, That the Prudential Committee be instructed to call a 



FIRST MEETING OF SUBSCIBERS. 13 

meeting of the Subscribers to the fund, as soon as they shall be able 
to communicate such information as in their view is necessary to 
enable the Subscribers to instruct a Purchasing Committee. 

T. B. JERYIS, Sec'y:' 

On the same day on which they were appointed, the Prudential 
Committee met and organized, and then, according to their instruc- 
tions, appointed an Exploring Committee, consisting of Nehemiah 
West, Thomas Gilbert, and Timothy B. Jervis. They also ap- 
pointed Rev. Gr. W. Gale a general agent of the Association, formed 
by the Subscribers. 

The agent and all the members of both the above committees 
were Presbyterians. 

The minutes of this meeting of the Prudential Committee are on 
file with the Secretary of the College, the main items of which are 
as follows: 

" May 6th, ] 835. The Prudential Committee of the IS'ew York 
Society, for Establishing a Settlement, College, &c., in the Valley 
of the Mississippi, met at the house of the Rev. Mr. Sedgwick, at 
Rome, according to appointment. Nehemiah West and Thomas 
Gilbert were appointed an Exploring Committee to examine' all the 
important points for effecting the objects of the Society in the North 
of the States of Indiana and Illinois, according to the instructions 
suggested by the Society at their meeting this day. Rev. Geo. W. 
Gale was appointed a general agent to procure families and funds, 
with a salary of $700 a year, and his necessary expenses, to be 
borne by the Society. There being no other individual present or 
known to the Committee, (as the third member of the Exploring 
Committee,) the Secretary was instructed to correspond with gen- 
tlemen and report at the next meeting. Timothy B. Jervis was 
chosen a member of the Prudential Committee. Adjourned to 
meet in Whitesboro', May the 12th, 1835, at the house of the Rev. 
G. W. Gale." 

"Whitesboro', May 12, 1835. Prudential Committee met accord- 
ing to adjournment. Mr. Gale reported that he had made inquiries 
by letter and otherwise, but had not been able to ascertain definitely 
whether any of the gentlemen he had in view would accept an ap- 
pointment as one of the Exploring Committee. After some delibera- 
tion and consultation with Mr. Jervis, a member of the Prudential 
Committee, it was resolved unanimously to appoint him." 

The three gentlemen above named accepted their appointment as 
an Exploring Committee, and immediately proceeded west in dis- 
charge of the duties assigned them. Nearly three months were 
spent by them in exploring portions of Indiana and Illinois. They 
early experienced a difficulty growing out of that part of the plan of 



14 KNOX COLLEGE. 

the Association which required the purchase of a whole township of 
government land. It was not easy at that time to find thirty-six 
square miles of land, all subject to entry at government price, which 
would combine fertility, and healthfulness, and desirableness of loca- 
tion, such as would render it a proper site for a colony and a College. 
This committee, in their correspondence with the Prudential Com- 
mittee, which is on file with the Secretary of the College, clearly 
stated the difficulty, and also urgently pressed the importance of se- 
curing a modification of the original plan, so far as to allow the pur- 
chase of a less amount of land than was at first proposed. If the 
Association would consent to such a change of their plan, the com- 
mittee were prepared, from the survey they had made, to recom- 
mend " the Military Tract," in Illinois, as the region which would 
"affbrcl altogether the best opportunity for" accomplishing the pur- 
poses of their appointment. At a later date the Prudential Commit- 
tee were informed that "Mr. Gilbert had found a township on the 
Military Tract which he thought would answer " as a site for the 
College. This township was the one adjoining the south-east corner 
of that within Avhich the Association afterward planted their Col- 
lege. Mr. Jervis recommended, in addition to the proposed change 
in the plan, that a Purchasing Committee should be appointed at 
once. In his letter he thus writes : "I can give you no idea of the 
flood of immigration that is pouring into this region of the West 
this season, and I would earnestly press the importance of the Pur- 
chasing Committee leaving you by the middle of August, and of the 
funds necessary to purchase the land being placed to their credit as 
early as September. Now is most emphatically the time for the 
friends of Zion to come up to the work of giving the means of intel- 
lectual and moral instruction to the inhabitants of the great valley." 
The Prudential Committee, having become well satisfied, from the 
letters of the Exploring Committee, that a whole township of govern- 
ment land could not be found in such a region as they desired, but 
that enough to accomplish all the objects of the Association could 
be secured upon the " Military Tract," in Illinois, called the Sub- 
scribers together in a second meeting, which was held on the 19th 
day of August, 1835, at Whitesboro', Xew York. At this meeting 
the original plan was modified so far as to authorize the purchase of 
twenty instead of thirty-six sections of land. A Purchasing Com- 
mittee was also appointed, consisting of Rev. G. W. Gale, Silvanus 



SECOND MEETINa OF SUBSCRIBERS. 15 

Ferris and Nehemiah West. These gentlemen were all Presby- 
terians. The following are the minutes of that 

SECOND MEETING OF SUBSCFJBERS. 

"At a meeting of the Subscribers to Rev. G. W. Gale's Circular, 
proposing the erection of a College in the Valley of the Mississippi, 
held at Whitesboro', August 19, 1835, Mr. S. Bond, of Adams, was 
chosen Chairman, and L Holt, of Watertown, Secretary. 

The forenoon was spent in prayer and other religious exercises, 
and in the afternoon the following resolutions were adopted : 

Hesolved^ That a committee of three persons be appointed to 
make a purchase and appraisal of lands in Illinois or Indiana, for 
the objects specified in the circular^ and that G. W. Gale, H. H. 
Kellogg and Silvanus Ferris be that committee ; also, that Nehe- 
miah West be a substitute for Mr. Kellogg. 

JResolved^ That those who visit the land this coming fall, with a 
view to remove their families at furthest in the spring, have their 
choice of lots, at the appraisal of the Purchasing Committee. 

Besolved, That the distribution of lots to Subscribers who do not 
go on this fall and make choice under the preceding resolution, shall 
, be deferred until a meeting of the Subscribers the coming winter, 

JResolved, That the Purchasing Committee give such security for 
monies received of the Subscribers, as the Prudential Committee 
deem safe. 

Besolved, That it is inexpedient to purchase less than twenty sec- 
tions, and as much more as the committee have funds to appropriate. 

Mesolved, That if necessary, the location of timber-land separate 
from prairie, in the purchase, shall not constitute an obstacle to the 
prosecution of our plan. 

Resolved^ That timber-land be put at the average price of prairie, 
and that one-tenth of the purchase be timber, and Subscribers, if 
they require it, be furnished with timber in that proportion. 

Adjourned." 

The reader will take notice that by their action in this second 
meeting, the Subscribers bound themselves to meet all the cost of 
the twenty sections of land when purchased: The Purchasing 
Committee were acting under their instructions and as their agents 
merely. In order to purchase the amount of land required, and to 
meet other expenses, the committee would need somewhat more 
than sixteen thousand dollars. By the terms of the original sub- 
scription, the money subscribed was not yet due, and although a 
Purchasing Committee had now been appointed, yet the Subscribers 
were not all able to advance at once the amount to be paid by them. 
A few of them, however, paid their subscription at that time, 



16 KNOX COLLEGE. 

amonnting in all to somewhat less than five thousand dollars. To 
this was added the proceeds of a note of eight hundred dollars 
given by Mr. R. N. Randall, of Whitesboro', a Presbyterian, who 
was not a Subscriber, but who had pledged what aid he could give 
to the enterprise. The Treasury Books of Knox College contain 
the names of the persons who paid this money, and the amount 
paid by each one, in the following entry^: 

Purchasing Committee, Dr., to Trustees of Knox College, for 
money received, Oct. 1, 1835, 

Of R. N". Randall $ 781 15 

" G. W. Gale 1,194 11 

" H. H. Kellogg 1,000 00 

" Gurdon Grant 400 00 

" John Waters . , 1,000 00 

" S. Ferris 400 00 

" T. Simmons 300 00 

" J.Frost 200 00 

Total 15,275 86 

In addition to this amount, other Subscribers agreed to advance 
the sum of nearly two thousand dollars, which, however, was not 
received by the committee in time for their use, as apj)ears from the 
agent's report, which will be given in its proper place. 

An additional sum of ten thousand dollars was advanced as a 
loan by Messrs. Gale and Ferris, two members of the Purchasing 
Committee. This money they obtained on their joint note, made 
payable at the Bank of Utica in four months from date. By an 
arrangement with the bank the money on this note was drawn 
from the Bank of ^Michigan, at Detroit. The Purchasing Committee 
were thus provided with money, which, after deducting exchange 
and discount, amounted to fifteen thousand and ninety-four dollars 
and eighty-four cents. As the duties of this committee were im- 
portant and arduous, they desired, before they left for the West, an 
increase of their number. After some inquiry, it was ascertained 
that Mr. Thomas Simmons, one of the Subscribers, would be willing 
to accompany them, and accordingly he was appointed one of the 
Purchasing Committee. He received his appointment from the 
Prudential Committee. Mr. Simmons was a Congregation alist, and 
was the only one, among the thirty-four Subscribers, by whom 
Knox College Avas founded, who belonged to that denomination. 
The amount of his subscription was eight hundred dollars, of which 
only three hundred were now advanced by him toward purchasing 
the land ; the remainder was paid at a later date. 



KNOX COLLEGE. 17 

Messrs. Gale, Ferris and West left in company for the " Military 
Tract," in Illinois, on the 16th day of September, 1835, At Detroit 
they were joined by Mr. Simmons. Here they drew from the Bank 
of Michigan the money on the note of ten thousand dollars, given 
by Mr. Gale and Mr. Ferris. Mr. Gale had been taken seriously ill 
before reaching Detroit, and was unable to proceed further. The 
other members of the committee left that city on the 29th of Sep- 
tember, intending to proceed to Knoxville, in Knox county, Illinois, 
where they had been directed by the previous Exploring Committee. 
On their way they spent two days at Ottawa, and while there were 
joined by Mr. Samuel Tompkins, a neighbor of Mr. Simmons. The 
two had travelled in company from their home, in Hamilton, New 
York, to Detroit, where they had separated. Mr. Tompkins was an 
humble mechanic, a shoemaker, of such limited means that he had 
travelled principally on foot from Detroit to Ottawa, looking for a 
new home for himself in the great West. At this point he was en- 
gaged by the committee to go on to Knoxville, and there assist them 
in surveying the land which they were about to purchase. The 
compensation to be allowed him was his travelling expenses, and no 
more, from Ottawa to Knoxville, and thence to his home in New 
York. The committee, having secured his services, then left him 
to follow them, as he did, on foot. He afterward rendered them 
faithful service in carrying the chain for the surveyors. His only- 
connection with the committee was that of a hired assistant. These 
facts respecting him are stated upon the authority of Mr. S. Ferris, 
the principal member of the committee, and his son, Mr. S. Wes- 
ton Ferris, who accompanied them through their whole journey. 
Mr. Tompkins was a Congregationaiist. He was never a Subscriber 
to the Plan of founding Knox College, and until after the College 
was founded, had never had any connection with the enterprise, ex- 
cept that of having been employed by the Purchasing Committee to 
carry the chain for their surveyors. Among all the records, and re- 
ports and documents of various kinds relating to the founding of the 
College, his name never appears except in the bill of expenses of the 
Purchasing Committee, who report him as having received |52.75. 

In the report of the Purchasing Committee, a portion of which 
will soon be given, this language occurs in narrating the action of 
the committee in purchasing the lands in Knox county : " On the 
30th of October two of your committee left the tract and returned 
to Quincy, to complete their entry, and the other returned directly 
2 



18 KNOX COLLEGE. 

home." The two who went to Quincy were Messrs. Ferris and 
West — the "other" was Mr. Simmons. This shows that the com- 
mittee did not regard Mr. Tompkins, who was then with them, as 
one of their number. Yet in the face of these facts, so anxious has 
Mr. Blanchard, the Ex-President of the College, been to establish the 
" rights of Congregationalists " to its control, that from want of 
any better foundation, he has on several different occasions publicly- 
advanced Mr. Tompkins as the principal actor in purchasing the lands 
and as the main founder of the College. His argument has always 
rested upon the fact that Mr. Tompkins was with the Purchasing Com- 
mittee when they bought the lands for the Association ; but he ap- 
pears never to have known, or if he didknow he never saw fit to tell the 
public what the true relations were between INIr. Tompkins and that 
committee. Mr. Tompkins, who now lives in Galesburg, must have 
been immeasurably surprised to learn, through Mr. Blanchard, how 
much the world owes to him as the chief founder of Knox College. 

The committee left Ottawa on the 12th of October, and proceeded 
to Knox county, upon the " Military Tract." Here they soon found, 
as they had been led to expect, from the correspondence of the Ex- 
ploring Committee, a site in every respect suited to their purposes. 

They immediately expended their funds in purchasing 10,'746 j^q\ 
acres, or about seventeen sections of land. In this amount were in- 
cluded two improved farms of 250 acres, and 160 acres of timber 
land, all of which cost $1,900. The remaining 10,336 f^Q acres con- 
sisted of most beautiful and fertile prairie land, not dotted by any hu- 
man habitation, and which cost, at government price, $12,921.01. 
The total cost of all the land was ($14,821.01) fourteen thousand 
eight hundred and twenty- one dollars and one cent. The two im- 
proved farms and the quarter-section of timber land were purchased 
in the name of the whole Committee, Messrs. Ferris, West, Gale 
and Simmons ; but the remainder was all purchased in the name of 
Mr. Ferris and of Mr. West. If Mr. Tompkins had been a member 
of the committee, his name would have been inserted in those first 
deeds. The committee surveyed the land, selected a site for the 
village, and also for the College, and agreed to call the town Gales- 
burg, after the author of the whole enterprise. They then, in the 
early part of November, 1835, left for their homes in New York. 
A meeting of the Subscribers was called to receive their report, to 
take possession of the land, and to found the College. That meet- 
ing was held on the 7th day of January, 1836, at Whitesboro', 



KNOX COLLEGE. 19 

New York. At that meeting ^the Subscribers assumed the entire 
ownership of the land; they founded the College, calling it "Prairie 
College ;" they determined the number that should constitute the 
Board; they elected ten Trustees to act as a quasi corporation 
imtil a charter could be obtained ; they required the Purchasing 
Committee to give bonds for the proper conveyance of the land to 
the Trustees of the College for its benefit ; they gave the name of 
Galesburg to their prospective town ; and they then, according to 
the plan to which they had subscribed, took farm lands of the As- 
sociation at an average price four times greater than that at which 
they had just been bought of the government. This they did in 
order to insure the immediate success of their plan. The College 
was founded at this meeting. These Suhscrihers, and they only, 
were its founders. They had originated a plan for founding the 
College ; they had purchased thousands of acres of land in order to 
endow it ; they then organized it by name ; they appointed its Board 
of Trustees ; they vested the title to the land in its Board ; and, 
finally, many of them gave themselves as colonists, forsaking pleas- 
ant homes in the East and consenting to endure the privations of 
western pioneer life, in order to insure the most perfect success to 
their undertaking. The land which they then gave as an endow- 
ment to their College has, in the few years since that time, been 
worth to it more than half a million of dollaes. 

The reader is asked to compare the acts of these Subscribers in 
founding Knox College, with the acts of the ten ministers who 
founded Yale College, and whose claim as founders was maintained 
and established by President Clapp, when disputed in 1*763, before 
the Governor and Council of the Colony of Connecticut. President 
Woolsey, in a "Historical Discourse," delivered in 1850, thus 
speaks of the manner of founding Yale College : " Some time in 
the year 1700, ten ministers, acting by general consent for the min- 
istry and the churches of the colony of Connecticut, held a meeting 
at New Haven, for the purpose of founding a Collegiate School ; 
and this purpose they carried into efiect at a subsequent meeting at 
Branford, in the same year, when each person presented a number 
of books to the body, using words to this eflTect as he laid the books 
on the table : ' I give these books for the founding of a College in 
this colony.'" "TAe act of founding consisted in their giYmg forty 
folios for the purpose of establishing a College in the colony." 
"The ten ministers who met at Branford in 1700, being a society, 



20 KNOX COLLEGE. 

and a quasi-corporation by nomination and consent of a body of 
ministers and people, and having made a donation to the College, 
as well as received property in trust for it before the charter, were 
in reality its founders by the common law, and thus had the right 
of visitation which they transmitted to their legal successors." If 
these ten ministers, who donated forty folios, were thus the founders 
of Yale College, then, beyond all question, the thirty-four Sub- 
scribers, who, in addition to all their other acts to the same effect, 
donated thousands of acres of land to establish and endow Knox 
College, were its founders. The following are the minutes of the 
meeting of the Subscribers when the College was founded : 

THIRD MEETING OF SUBSCRIBERS. 

"At a meeting of the Subscribers to the Circular of the Rev. G. W. 
Gale, for the purchase of lands on which to locate a College, etc., in 
the Yalley of the Mississippi, held at Whitesboro', on the 7th Janu- 
ary, 1836, John Waters was elected Chairman, and N. H. Losey 
Secretary. The session was opened with prayer by Rev. Ira Petti- 
bone. Minutes of last meeting were read. Report of the agent, 
G. W. Gale, was accepted." 

As the several reports presented at this meeting, are long and 
would occupy too much space in this pamphlet, if published entire, 
it is necessary to present only such portions of them as relate di- 
rectly to the facts already stated. These reports are valuable docu- 
ments, in which may be found almost the entire history of the 
founding of the College. The following statements are taken from 
the above mentioned Agent's Report : 

"It will be recollected by those who attended our meeting to ap- 
point a Purchasing Committee, that Mr. Silvanus Ferris, Rev. 
H. H. Kellogg, and myself, were appointed for that purpose, with 
instructions to collect funds and purchase, if possible, twenty sec- 
tions of land. It being doubtful whether Mr. Kellogg would be 
able to go, at his suggestion Mr. West, who had been out as one of 
the Exploring Committee, was appointed in his stead. The Pru- 
dential Committee, feeling that it was very important to have a full 
committee, and some of the committee feeling that the duties would 
be arduous as well as highly responsible, thought best to appoint 
Mr. T. Simmons, of Hamilton, in addition. There was one place on 
the Military Tract, in Knox county, which Mr. Gilbert had seen, 
and in which he had purchased, which be thought would do, and 
which was nearly all Congress land. A consultation was held by 
the committee and some friends, as to what was expedient to be 



THIRD MEETING OF SUBSCRIBERS. 21 

done. A few advanced what funds they could. "We raised between 
5,000 and 6,000 dollars, and made arrangements for more, but in some 
of it we were disappointed, and some that was sent on did not reach 
the committee in time. The committee also resolved to effect a loan 
through the Bank, if possible, which they did on their own respon- 
sibility, of $10,000. This they supposed would enable them nearly 
or quite to meet the wishes and instructions of the Subscribers in 
the amount of land to be purchased, which it did nearly, and would 
have done quite, but for the disappointment just mentioned. Mr. 
Simmons arrived soon after the rest of the committee did, at Detroit. 
I would add that our list of Subscribers amomits. to forty-six. 
There were a few who subscribed, but who, discouraged about our 
makinoj a purchase, have settled in Michigan." 

" Report of Prudential Committee was read by its chairman, H. H. 
Kellogg and accepted." 

(The following are among its statements :) 

" The doings of this committee were reported to this body at their 
last meeting. They then stated that an Exploring Committee had 
been sent out, one of whom, as was expected, had returned and 
was then present. Mr. Gilbert had found a township on the Military 
Tract which he thought would answer, and after deliberation, it was 
thought best to get what money could be obtained, and to send out 
the Committee. This was done as reported by the agent. The 
amount of money expended in land and the expense attending the 
purchase, will be reported by the Purchasing Committee. The 
committee would now recommend that the lots should be distributed 
in the way the Subscribers may think best, and that trustees be 
chosen to make conveyance of property to Subscribers, after re- 
ceiving it from the committee, and to take charge of all the business 
relating to the College, and other literary institutions. The busi- 
ness for which the Prudential Committee were appointed having 
been accomplished, they now tender their resignation." 

" Report of the Purchasing Committee was read by Mr. West, and 
accepted." [This report is very long, but only the following facts of all 
w^hich it contains need be now published :] " On examining the tract 
in Illinois, they (the committee) found that it combined more desi- 
rable objects than they had heretofore expected to find. They found 
it delightfully situated on the height of land, and nearly central be- 
tween the two rivers, beautifully watered with living springs and 
streams, and having an abundance of coal and building stone, and 
unquestionably healthful. Accordingly they decided at once to 
plant their feet there, and commenced making the purchase. In 
the first place they purchased two improved farms, the one contain- 
ing 150, the other 100 acres, for $1,500. They also bought one 
quarter-section of timber, adjoining the first purchase, for $2.50 per 
acre ($400.) They then left immediately for Quincy, a distance of 
one hundred miles, where the land office is kept, to make entries 
of what prairie land was needed. The whole amount of funds 



22 KNOX COLLEGE. 

belonging to tlfie company invested was 115,094.84. The quan- 
tity of land purchased is, 410 acres of resident individuals, and 
10,336 y^'q acres of the government, making the whole ]3nrchase 
amount to 10,746 j%^^ acres. In addition to the above purchase, your 
committee invested private funds suffioient to secure the remainder 
of the township, so that now it will be entirely under the control of 
the colony, a circumstance highly favorable to our mutual improve- 
ment. Thus, we have given briefly the outlines of our expedition 
and success. Should the blessing of Heaven attend our labors, and 
we succeed in raising up a seminary of learning in the great valley, 
and thus be instrumental in sending the Bread of life to those that 
are ready to perish, multitudes in the realms of glo'-y may yet rise 
up and call us blessed. Your committee would recommend that this 
meeting proceed immediately to divide the land an.ong the Subscri- 
bers, agreeable to the original plan, and that we elect nine Trustees, 
who shall have the charge of all tlie property, landed or otherwise, 
belonging to the Institution, and who shall, as soon as practicable, 
be incorporated by the Legislature of the State of Illinois, by the 
name of the ' Trustees of Prairie College, 111.' 

Monies received by Purchasing Committee $15,094 84 

Amount of purchase, 10,746 j%]j acres $14,821 01 

Expenses paid by Mr. Ferris 636 20 

Exploring Committee 517 41 

(Agent) 584 45 

$16,559 07 

The plan of disti'ihuting lots to Subscribers was referred to a com- 
mittee of three, also the continuance of scholarships, and mode of 
conveyance, and Messrs. J. C. Smith, Silvanus Ferris, and Thomas 
Simmons, were appointed that committee. 

Hesolved, That we proceed to appoint a Board of Trustees, 
agreeablt/ to the plan to which ice subscribed^ and that the number of 
which the Board shall consist, and the nomination of the Board, be 
referred to a committee. 

Messrs. Gale, Kellogg and West were appointed that committee. 

Hesolved^ That a committee of three be appointed to report what 
is to be done for the improvement of the public lands, a name for 
the College and village, and what, if anything, shall be done to 
guard the morals of the colony. 

Messrs. Smith, West and Tompkins were appointed that com- 
mittee. Adjourned to meet again at 2 o'clock P. M. 

2 o'clock P. M. Met according to adjournment. The Committee 
of nomination, etc., made the following Report: That the Board 
consist of twenty-five, when full ; that it is now inexpedient to fill 
it ; and nominate as trustees the following persons : John Waters, 
Silvanus Ferris, H. H. Kellogg, Thos. Simmons, Samuel Bond, 
John C. Smith and Walter Webb. The report was accepted and 
adopted. 



THIED MEETING OF SUBSCRIBERS. 23 

Mr. Bond requested that Ms name be stricken out, whicli was 
granted, and G. W. Gale and Nehemiah West were nominated and 
appointed. 

Isaac Mills and Samuel Tompkins were also appointed. 

The committee to whom the plan of distributing, etc., was re- 
ferred, reported. That lots as appraised, he received on subscrip- 
tion — choice or preference be decided by hid — bids for general 
fund — 80 acres, at. any price, entitled to scholarships — and that to 
future purchasers, until scholarships amount to eighty if taken in 
sixty days, lots shall be entitled to scholarships, and in other cases, 
at the discretion of the trustees — that the Purchasing Committee 
be requested to hold the duplicates, and give bonds for the due con- 
veyance, so soon as circumstances will admit, agreeably to the 
original plan, to the trustees, and in the mean time, certificates or 
deeds to purchasers, when directed by the trustees. The report 
was accepted and adopted. 

Resolved^ That if any one becomes dissatisfied with his choice of a 
lot, and wishes to exchange with the trustees, for lots in their posses- 
sion, designed for settlers, he may have the privilege at the appraisal. 

Mesolved^ That the agent be directed to designate individuals to 
select lots for absent subscribers who have requested it. 

Resolved^ That we proceed to the distribution of lots. See me- 
morandum of sales file No. 4, also treasurer's books. 

The committee to whom was referred the plan of improving public 
lands, etc., reported, 

That the village be immediately laid out under the direction of 
the trustees, appraised and thrown into market : 

That lots for an academy or preparatory school, ladies seminary, 
meeting house and common school, and for other benevolent objects, 
as the trustees may deem expedient, be reserved from the village tract: 

That arrangements be made by the trustees, for cultivating and 
fencing the College land the present year; also for procuring ma- 
terial for a College edifice^ so that it be commenced as early as the 
spring of 1837 : 

That provision be made for the erection of a steam saw-mill, 
either from the public fund or private enterprise, giving preference 
to the latter : 

That the College be named Prairie College, and the village 
Galesburg : 

That a house he huilt at the earliest practicable period, by the 
trustees, for boarding and entertainment : 

That the trustees furnish laood land for each purchaser who re- 
quires it, equal to one-tenth of their purchase; which report was 
accepted and adopted. 

In the course of the meeting, Mr. Losey resigned the ofiice of 
Secretary, and J. C. Smith was appointed in his room. 

Jno. C. Smith, Sec'y. 
The foregoing records were approved by the board. 

J. C. Smith, SecY'' 



24: ' KNOX COLLEGE. 

The reader has not failed to notice from the foregoing minutes, 
that the persons who held the several meetings recorded, invariably 
style themselves " the Subscribers to the Circular of Rev. G. W. 
Gale for founding literary institutions " — that in the reports of the 
several committees similar language is used in designating those by 
whom they were appointed — that the Prudential Committee, which 
was appointed at the first meeting of the Subscribers, presented a 
report at the second, and again at the third meeting, and at the 
last meeting tendered their resignation — that the agent also, who 
was appointed at the first meeting, reported at the last — that all the 
transactions, from the first to the last meeting, were an uninterrupted 
series, ending in the accomplishment of the original plan — and 
that from first to last the " Subscribers," and they only, were the 
responsible parties engaged in the work, and by whom the College 
was founded. 

Those readers who live in Galesburg and vicinity, and who heard 
Ex-President Blanchard, when he introduced himself upon the plat- 
form after the inaugural address of his successor, a year and a half 
ago, and in a harangue an hour long, assailed that address and the 
College Board, will compare the above facts, which are found upon 
the very first pages of the College records, with the statements he 
then made, and which he has since repeated, concerning the total 
failure of Mr. Gale's Plan, and the abandonment of the whole en- 
terprise by the Subscribers after their first meeting. 

The Bond, required by the Subscribers to be given by the 
Purchasing Committee for the conveyance of the land held by 
them to the Trustees of the College, is on file and is as follows : 

"Whereas a purchase has been made in Townshij) Eleven north, 
one East of fourth principal meridian, in Knox county, Illinois, of 
certain lands as hereinafter described, by Silvanus Ferris of Herki- 
mer county, and Nehemia West of Cayuga county, of the State of 
New York, in hehalf of certain persons, Subscribers to a fund for 
a Western Colony and institutions, on a plan proposed by Rev. G. 
W. Gale, the title of which is now vested in us, and by the said 
Subscribers we are instructed to vest this title in their Board of 
Trust — now therefore we bind ourselves, our heirs and assigns 
to convey our respective and conjoined interests and titles to the 
following persons, viz : [Here follow the names of the ten Trustees 
of the College,] and their associates or successors in office. Trustees 
of the said Institution, now named Prairie College, in the following 
property or sections of land, being a part of the above named town- 
ship 11 north, 1 east of 4th principal meridian, viz : [Description of 



KNOX COLLEGE. 25 

the land by sections, etc.] so soon as circumstances will admit, and 
in the mean time convey to individual purchasers, by direction of 
said Trustees ; which conveyance shall supersede the conveyance 
to the said Trust of such portions as have been conveyed to 
individuals. 

In witness whereof we have hereunto set our hands and seals 
this 8th day of January, 1836. Sii,tanus Feeeis, [l. s.] 

Nehemiah West, [l. s.]" 

From the College records, as will soon be shown, it appears that 
the title to all the land continued to be held by the Purchasing Com- 
mittee until after a charter had been obtained, in 1837 ; and that 
then they conveyed the whole to the corporate Board ; and that all 
persons who in the mean time had purchased any of the land, in- 
cluding Subscribers as well as others, received their deeds from the 
College. 

The note of $10,000, given by Messrs. Gale and Ferris, became 
due on the last of January, 1836, and was then taken up. Of the 
money which paid it, $5,300 came from Subscribers; the balance, 
14,700 was obtained from the Bank of Ontario, at Utica, on another 
joint note of Messrs. Gale and Ferris, payable in ninety days. 
When this note became due, it was paid in part by money received 
as before, from Subscribers, and in part by a new note for $3,139.78, 
drawn by the same parties, payable in four months. This note was 
due on the first day of September, 1836, at which time enough 
money had been received from the Subscribers to pay the largest 
part of it. The balance, amounting to $1,200, was put into a new 
note, payable in four months. This last note, after two partial pay- 
ments, and two renewals for the balance, was entirely paid in March, 
1837, by Mr. Ferris, with his own money. These facts are set forth 
in the books of the Treasurer of the College, and in a letter written 
by Mr. Ferris a few days after the last payment had been made. 

It is no more than simple justice at this point to remark that 
all the records and facts relating to the founding of the Col- 
lege show that while great credit is due to all the Subscribers 
for what was accomplished, yet much the largest share of this credit 
is due to Mr. Gale and Mr. Silvanus Ferris. Without their efforts 
Knox College would, doubtless, never have been founded. Mr. Gale 
originated the plan, secured the Subscribers, and risked all that he pos- 
sessed in order to insure success. Mr. Ferris was a wealthy farmer, 
and it was his responsible name, joined with Mr. Gale's, which se- 



26 KNOX COLLEGE. 

cured the largest part of the money required to purchase the lands 
for the College. It was his credit, also, that continued that loan 
until those of the Subscribers who had not yet paid their subscrip- 
tion, could do so without inconvenience to themselves. After all 
this, he then abandoned a pleasant home in central New York, where 
he had gathered around him everything that seems desirable in the 
declining period of life, and at the advanced age of sixty-four years, 
removed, among the first colonists, to Galesburg, there to share in 
the privations and cares incident to all pioneer life. This he did 
wholly for the sake of the College. Happily his life has been spared 
and the clearness and vigor of his mind, until now, at almost four- 
score years and ten, he sees Knox College richly endowed, having 
large and costly buildings, and promising to accomplish in the 
future a nobler mission than even its prayerful and hopeful founders 
dared anticipate for it. 

It is a fortunate thing that no uncertainty rests upon the question, 
who were these Subscribers who founded the College. The original 
subscription-book used by Mr. Gale, is in the hands of the Secretary 
of the College, and contains the names of all the Subscribers, On 
the first pages of this book are the printed circular and plan of Mr. 
Gale, immediately following which is this heading : " We, the 
Subscribers, agree to pay the sums set opposite to our names respec- 
tively, to such person or persons as shall be designated by the Sub- 
scribers, or Board of Trustees elected by them, for the purposes, and 
in the manner set forth in the foregoing printed Preamhle and Plan 
for establishing literary institutions in the West." This is followed 
by the names of forty-six persons, as Subscribers. Some of these 
persons had withdrawn from the enterprise before the first meeting 
of the Subscribers. It will be remembered that the agent, in his 
report, after stating that the number on his list was forty-six, added 
that " there were a few who subscribed, but who, discouraged about 
our making a purchase, have settled in Michigan." These and some 
others, making twelve in all, never met with the Subscribers, and 
never shared either in their counsels or in their pecuniary obliga- 
tions. They never were regarded by the other Subscribers, from 
the time of their first meeting onward, as in any manner connected 
with them in their Association. The remaining thirty-four names 
alone designate the persons referred to in the foregoing documents 
as the " Subscribers," by whom the College was founded. Their 
names are found, not only in the subscription book, but also in the 



ITS FOUNDEES. 27 

" Memorandum of Sales," and in the " Treasurer's Books," which 
are referred to in the minutes of the third meeting, in connection 
with the distribution of the lands. These last named documents 
show necessarily who were the true " Subscribers," for they contain 
the names of the persons who at that third meeting received farm- 
lands for their subscription, according to the original plan. The 
Records of the College also contain many of their names. The 
Records, the "Treasurer's Books" and the "Memorandum of 
Sales " give thirty -four of the names that are contained in the sub- 
scription book, and they give no others, as the Subscribers. The 
College Board opened its treasury books, consisting of a " Blotter," 
a " Journal," and a "Ledger," with the names of those Subscribers. 
Fortunately, also, several of the principal men among them, Mr. 
Gale, Mr. Ferris and Professor Losey, are now living in Galesburg. 
These men were familiar with the names of their associates, and they 
all affirm the correctness of the list contained in the foregoing docu- 
ments. The account books of the College were opened and were 
kept for years afterward by Professor Losey, as Treasurer of the 
College, and the names of the original Subscribers were entered by 
him in those books. 

The names of these Subscribers are given below, together with 
the amount which each one pledged in return for farm-lands at 
their meeting, in January, 1836. The sum of these pledges, as will be 
seen, exceeded by several thousand dollars the whole cost of the 
land and all the expenses attending its purchase. In other words, 
these men not only paid for all the land which they donated to the 
College, but they also put several thousand dollars of money into its 
treasury. The church relations of the Subscribers, at the time they 
founded the College, are given in this connection also ; but the 
abundant and positive testimony upon which the statement is based, 
which of necessity is of some length, will not be given until after 
some other matters have first been introduced. The Subscribers 
were all church members except Mr. Thomas Gilbert, one of the 
Exploring Committee. He was at that time, and has always been 
since, a Presbyterian in sentiment, and a supporter of a Presby- 
terian church, of which his wife has, during the whole period, been 
a member. Mr. Timothy B. Jervis, at the time he served as one of 
the Exploring Committee, was a candidate for the ministry, and 
very soon after was licensed and ordained a Presbyterian minister, 
by his Presbytery in New York. 



KN^OX COLLEGE. 



FOUNDERS OF KNOX COLLEGE. 



PKESBTTEKIAIN' MINISTEKS 



NAME. 

1. Rev, Geo. W. Gale, 

2. " Hiram H. Kellogg, 
§. " John Waters, 

4. " Timothy B. Jervis, 

5. " Phineas Camp, 

6. " John Gray, 
Y. " John Frost, 



RESIHENCE. AMOUNT OF PURCHASE. 

Whitesboro', N. Y $3,980 



Clinton, 
New Hartford," 
Rome, " 

Norway, " 

Troy, 
Whitesboro', " 



2,400 
2,480 
400 
560 
320 
640 



Total by Presbyterian Ministers $10,780 



PRESBTTERIAN^ ELDERS 



9. 
10. 
11. 
12. 
13. 
14. 
]5. 
16. 
17. 



18. 
19. 
20. 
21. 
22. 
23. 
24. 
25. 
26. 
27. 
28. 
29. 



30. 



Nehemiah West, 
John McMullen, 
John C. Smith, 
I. S. Fitch, 
Smith Griffith, 
Lewis Kinney, 
Amatus Robbins, 
Channcey Peirce, 
Gurdon Grant, 
Samuel Bond, 



Ira, 

Western, 

Utica, 

Bainbridge, 

Nassau, 

Greenbush, 

Troy, 

Troy, 

Troy, 

Adams, 



N. 



Y $1,480 

, 400 

270 

400 

480 

400 

400 

400 

400 

560 



Total by Presbyterian Elders $5,190 

LAY MEMBERS OP PRESBYTERIAN" CHURCHES : 

Russia, N. Y $3,160 

Whitesboro', " 600 

Adams, " 960 

Whitesboro', " 400 

Troy, " 480 

New Lebanon, " 1,600 

800 



Silvanus Ferris, 

Nehemiah H. Losey, 

Sylvester Bliss, 

Roland Sears, 

Silvanus Town, 

H. Troop Avery, ) 

George Avery, j 

James Barton, 

Sidney Rice, 

Miss Araminta P. Rice, 

J. B. Marsh, 

Thos. Gilbert, ( see above) 



Schoharie, 

Trov, 

Troy, 

Amsterdam, 

Rome, 



400 
320 
400 
480 



Total by Presbyterian Church Members $9,600 



CONGREGATIONALIST 



Thomas Simmons, Hamilton, N. Y 

By Presbyterians $25,570 

By Congregationalists 800 

Total $26,370 



ITS FOUNDERS. 29 

To the foregoing list must be added the names of four persons 
who were Subscribers, and who aided by their counsels and labors 
in founding the College, but who purchased no lands, preferring to 
leave their portion to be sold by the College, when it was found 
that the other Subscribers had pledged more than enough to pay 
for all the land bought by the Association. These persons were all 
Presbyterians : 

31. Jeremiah Holt, Watertown, N. Y., an Elder. 

32. George Stedman, Rome, " 

33. Benj, P. Johnson, " " 

34. Walter Webb, Adams, " 

The foregoing statement shows, that of the thirty-four Subscribers 
who founded Knox College, thirty-three were Presbyterians, and 
one only was a Congregation alist. It shows, also, that these Sub- 
scribers, at their meeting in January, 1836, after having directed 
their Purchasing Committee to convey all the lands held by them to 
the College, then bought back for themselves a portion of those 
lands, at greatly increased prices, ple(iging to the College treasury, 
in payment thereof, the sum of twenty-six thousand three hundred 
and seventy dollars. Of this sum, eight hundred dollars were 
pledged by a Congregation alist — all the rest was pledged by Pres- 
byterians. The whole sum pledged exceeded the cost of the land, 
and all expenses of the Association, by about ten thousand dollars. 
The whole amount of farm lands purchased by the Subscribers at 
this time was 5,240 acres. 

A colony, composed principally of a large number of the Sub- 
scribers and their families, removed, as early in 1836 as was pos- 
sible, upon the ground where the College was to be located. The 
Institutions of learning, which they had come to build up, soon 
proved a great attraction to persons who were looking for a new 
western home for themselves, and early began to draw in settlers 
from various quarters, and of various shades of religious belief It 
soon became evident that the College would have no difficulty in 
filling its treasury by the sale of its lands — and that the more land 
it could retain for future sale, the better it would be for its pros- 
perity. Under these circumstances, some of the Subscribers, who 
had not removed to Galesburg, were induced to allow their lands, 
which they had bought, to go to the College, instead of the money 
which they had pledged for them. Eight of them, viz : Messrs. 
Griffith, Gilbert, Bond, Peirce, Bliss, Marsh, and Rice, and 



80 KNOX COLLEGE. 

A. P. Rice, returned in all 720 acres. They did this at a pecuniary 
sacrifice to themselves, as the land was already worth more than 
the price at which they had bought it. But their sole object had 
been to establish the College upon a solid basis, and they cheerfully 
sacrificed their own interests for its welfare. By their a'ct, the 
College received a less amount of money from the Subscribers than 
had been pledged by them at first, but it received, instead thereof, 
land which was already worth more than the money, and which was 
continually increasing in value. After the return of these lands, 
there remained, pledged to be paid by the other Subscribers, nearly 
twenty-three thousand dollars. The College, howev^er, received 
from them a larger sum than this, from the fact that during the two 
years that passed before the Corporate Board began to give any 
deeds, many of the Subscribers sold a part or the whole of their 
lands to other settlers, and generally at advanced prices ; and in 
many such instances they allowed the new purchaser to pay the 
increased amount directly to the College. In one instance Mr. 
Silvanus Ferris allowed the College to sell for its own benefit four 
hundred acres of the land taken by him, on the express condition 
that it should be sold at an advance of one-third upon the price 
which he was to pay for it. The land taken by Mr. J. Barton was 
sold very early at an advance of twenty-five per cent, upon the 
price at which he had taken it, and the College received the money. 
Several others pursued the same generous course toward the Col- 
lege, so that its treasury received from the Subscribers for their 
farm lands not less than twenty-five thousand dollars. Less than 
one-thirtieth of this sum came from a Congregationalist — all the re- 
mainder came from Presbyterians. Many of the Subscribers who 
removed to Galesburg purchased village property, and in this way 
the College received from them several thousand dollars in addition 
to the above sum. It has always been the custom of the College to 
sell its lands upon time when desired, allowing the purchaser usually 
two or three years within which to pay for them. It often happens 
that the land thus sold is again sold by the first purchaser, and 
sometimes it passes in this way through the hands of several parties, 
before the last payment is made to the College, and before any deed 
has been given. In such cases the common practice is for the Col- 
lege to give a deed directly to the last purchaser, provided the in- 
termediate parties consent. This practice saves expense, and has 
its advantages in several ways. But it is evident at once that 



KNOX COLLEFE. 31 

where sncli a practice prevails the county records of deeds no longer 
furnish any correct evidence as to the actual purchaser from the 
College. They show correctly to whom the deed was given, pro- 
vided it is on record, but not to whom the College sold its lands, 
and from whom it received the money paid for them. There are 
not a few men in Galesburg whose names appear in the recorder's 
office as purchasers of land from the College, while the fact is they 
bought of other parties, and paid their money to other parties. 
The county records never show with certainty who paid the money 
into the College treasury for its lands — its own treasury books 
alone show this. Yet, simple as this matter is, it has been strangely 
overlooked in a recent published report of the Congregational Gen- 
eral Association of this State concerning Knox College ; and that 
report very sagely presents a list of names, drawn professedly from 
the county records, to show who paid money into the College treas- 
ury in exchange for its lands. That list, as will be shown in due 
time, has in it a large apocryphal element; but even if it were 
entirely correct it would be of no value for the purpose for which 
it is introduced. 

The reader will notice from the foregoing facts, that the Subscri- 
bers not only paid the full amount pledged by them in their sub- 
scription list, but they paid several thousand dollars more. The 
statement made of late by Mr. Blanchard and his friends, that only 
a very small part of the amount subscribed was ever paid, is so far 
from true, that in fact, as the College books show, "much more than 
the full amount subscribed was paid by the Subscribers. Several of 
them paid two or three-fold more than the sum they had at first sub- 
scribed. The reader will bear in mind, also, that when these Sub- 
scribers divided among themselves a part of the lands which they 
had purchased of the government, and pledged the price thereof 
to the College treasury, they were only carrying out their original 
plan. By that plan they were to keep a part of the lands for them- 
selves, and were to donate the rest to the College. They found at 
last that it would be a simpler process to bestow the legal title to the 
whole upon their newly organized College Board and then take 
their deeds from that Board, rather than from the Purchasing Com- 
mittee, In this way they appear as purchasers of lands from the 
College. But the lands they thus purchased were their own accord- 
ing to the previous plan, and according to a mode of division already 
agreed upon, when the College was founded. These Subscribers, 



32 KNOX COLLEGE. 

therefore, while nominally purchasers from the College, were in fact 
purchasers from themselves, as an Association. For the land ap- 
propriated by themselves they paid enough to cover the cost of all 
the lands purchased hy their Committee, and also to put into the 
College treasury for its oton use about eight thousand dollars. They 
also made a free donation of all the land not taken by themselves, 
to the College, to be sold at such times and to such parties as it 
pleased. 

After the College had been founded, in January, 1836, and had 
received its donation of lands, several persons, not Subscribers, 
came forward and became purchasers of farm lands. A few of 
these persons intended to remove West, and bought for their own 
benefit — others bought in order to help on the enterprise. They 
all, except the one first named, retained their lands. 

The following are their names : 

Eev. L. H. Loss, Presbyterian, :N'ew York Mills, K Y. . . $ 320 

" Ira Pettibone, " Whitesboro', K Y 120 

R. K Randall, " " " 1,040 

Isaac Mills, " Elder, Columbia, K Y. . . 2,020 

S. Pomeroy, Presbyterian, (Dr. Hopkins' Church.) Au- 

^ burn, K Y 800 

S. Williams, Presbyterian, Russia, IST. Y 1,040 

Samuel Tompkins, Congregationalist, Hamilton, N. Y. .. 560 
R. Root, (not a church member) Camden, N. Y 320 

Total $6,220 

Of this amount the sum of |5,900 was actually paid to the Col- 
lege. One Congregationalist paid |560. Presbyterians paid $5,020. 

The agent of the College, Rev. Mr. Gale, came to Illinois early 
in 1836, in order to secure a survey of the town plat, and to provide 
for the comfort of the colonists. During that year and the next he 
sold farm lands for the College to a large number of settlers. These 
persons were almost all strangers to the founders of the College and 
had known nothing of the enterprise until this time. They came 
to Galesburg for the sake of advancing their own personal interests, 
and they bought College lands solely for this purpose. Many of 
them have been made rich by the lands they then purchased. The 
College sold to all purchasers upon exactly the same terms. Some 
of them were Presbyterians, some were Congregation alists, and 
some belonged to no reUgious denomination. The authors of the 
pamphlet already alluded to, entitled " Rights of Congregationalists 



PURCHASEES OF FAEM LANDS. 33 

in Knox College," in order to find some ground on wMch to rest a 
claim for the Congregational body, have entirely ignored all the 
action of the founders of the College ; and have presented a list of 
names of the early settlers in Galesbm'g, who found the College 
already established when they came here, and who never donated 
to it one dollar in money or one acre of land ; and have given to 
these men the credit of having both founded and endowed the Col- 
lege, and for the reason that they bought fann lands from the 
College — not for it, but from it — for their own personal benefit ! 
That pamphlet claims, in naked terms, that the men who bought 
farm lands from the College were, in so doing, its founders, and 
endowers ! The folly of such a claim needs no other exposure than 
its simple statement. The College had already been founded, and 
all its lands which have endowed it, had been donated to it, before 
these settlers ever saw or heard of Galesburg. As, however, the 
question is thus raised, what amount of money has been paid to the 
College for its farm lands, and by whom, it may be well to present 
here the facts which will fully answer it. The following list em- 
braces the names of all the purchasers of the original farm lands of 
the College from the close of the last meeting of the Subscribers in 
January, 1836, down to the present time. The list will show at a 
glance who were Congregationalists, and who were Presbyterians, 
and who belonged to neither party at the time they bought. The 
total amount of money to be paid by each class of purchasers is 
also given. This list of names and the sums attached are taken 
from the treasurer's books, and have been carefully examined by 
him and found to be correct. The cultivated farm in the original 
purchase has been sold several times, and as often retmmed to the 
College. It is now in the possession of a German, who has not yet 
paid for it. If paid for, it will not realize enough to cover its cost. 
For these reasons it is not embraced in the present statement. 
There are persons not named below who have received deeds from 
the College, but who purchased either of the Subscribers or of other 
parties, and paid their money to them or according to their direction. 
There are others, also, who bought and made one or more partial 
payments, but who afterward returned the land to the College, and 
received back the money they had paid. None of these, of course, 
are named as purchasers. The list here given embraces all who 
actually bought the original farm lands from the College, and not 
from the Subscribers or other intermediate parties, and who never 



34: KNOX COLLEGE. 

returned them. The records of the Fh'st Presbyterian Church in 
Galesburg have furnished the church relations of all but four of 
those among the purchasers who are classed as Congregationalists or 
Presbyterians. Two of those four, are W. A. Wood and G. W. G. 
Ferris, both of whom were members of the Second Presbyterian 
Church in this city, of which the writer of this was pastor, at the 
time they bought. They were both decided Presbyterians. The 
other two are W. B, Hamlin and H. Wilcox, who are classed 
according to their well-known preferences. 

PURCHASERS OF FARM LANDS FROM THE COLLEGE. 

Peesbytekia^s-s. In 1836-7 ; B. Allen, E. Pomeroy, E. H. King, 
Hitchcock Family, H. Conger, A. Tyler, Jr., G. W. Gale, bought 
eighty acres of the College, W. Holyoke, H. Wilcox, $5,120. In 
1854: W. A. Wood, G. W. G. Ferris, $12,480.14. 

Total by Presbyterians, $17,600.14. 

Congregationalists. In 1836-7 : E. SAvift, M. Chambers, E. 
Farnham, L. Sanderson, R. Payne, W. B. Hamlin, $7,920. In 
1852: J. Blanchard, $2,400. In 1854: L. Gary, A. B. Clark, 

$2,840. 

Total by Congregationalists, $13,160. 

Non-Peofessoes. In 1836-7 : C. S. Colton, M. Miller, L. Chap- 
pel, J. Duston, J. West, H. Ferris, $3,320. In 1846: J. Jerauld, 
$500. In 1850: L. Martin, H. Ferris, $480. In 1852: J. L. 
Clay, $800. In 1853: A.G.Pearson, $2,400. In 1854: J. H. 
Barnett, H. C. Foote, $2,569.94. In 1856: J. Thirlwell, W. B. 
Patterson, $1,500. 

Total by Non-Professors, $11,569,94. 

Othek Parties. In 1850: W. D. Lee, Baptist. In 1854: S. 
Richardson, Methodist. Total, $2,000. 
Total by all classes, $44,330.08. 

In the foregoing list are thirty-seven names. The list of Non. 
Professors embraces the names of several persons, who, after they 
had bought of the College, became members of the First Church 
in this place, while it was purely Presbyterian. Of that number 
Mr. C. S. Colton, and perhaps one or two others, but not more, are 
now regarded as Congregationalists. During the first two years 
after the College had been founded, frequent sales of the farm lands 
were made. But from the early part of 1838, down to 1850, a 
period of twelve years, no more farms were sold, except the half of 
one quarter- section in 1846. It will be seen that the total amount 



PURCHASEES OF FARM LANDS. 35 

paid by Congregationalists, including Mr. S. Tompkins, who bought 
in the State of New York, for farm lands, purchased previous to the 
year 1852, is only $8,480. This is a less sum than that paid by one 
Presbyterian purchaser, Mr. G. W. G. Ferris, who paid $8,630.14. 
It has been shown that the Subscribers paid for the farm lands 
bought by them, $25,000; and that other parties in the State of 
New York paid $5,900. These sums added to that paid by all 
classes named above, give $75,230.08 as the total amount paid into 
the College treasury for all its original farm lands which have ever 
been sold. By recalling the statements already made, it will be 
easy to determine how much of this amount has been paid by Pres- 
byterians and how much by Congregationalists. 

PEESBYTERIAJ^S. CONGREGATIONALISTS. 

Subscribers $24,200 One Subscriber $ 800 

Others in N. Y. . . . 5.020 S. Tompkins, in N. Y. . 560 
In Galesburg, 111.. 17,600 14 In Galesburg, 111 13,160 



$46,820 14 $14,520 

The sum paid by Non-Professors, and by others not included under 
either of the above heads, is $13,889 94, which is almost equal to 
the whole sum ever paid by all purchasers who were Congregation- 
alists. 

Much has been said of late about the large amount of money 
paid to the College by the earliest Congregational purchasers ; and 
one of those gentlemen has allowed a statement to be published 
over his own name, in which he is represented as having done very 
much to give success to the enterprise during its first years. The 
following facts will correct the erroneous impressions made by such 
statements : The only two Congregationalists who bought a large 
amount of land during the early years of the College, were Mr. 
Swift and Mr. Chambers. The agent very reluctantly sold to them 
niore land than he had allowed others to take, because they repre- 
sented themselves as able to control a large amount of capital, which 
they would secure to the benefit of the colony. Even then, how- 
ever, the whole sum to be paid by them was, as already shown, only 
a few thousand dollars. Mr. Chambers was allowed to select, at a 
merely nominal price, the best business lot in the village, with the 
clear understanding that he was to erect upon it, at once, a store, 
and engage in mercantile business. As soon, however, as he had 
secured the title to his property, he went to the neighboring town 



36 KXOX COLLEGE. 

of Knoxville, the county seat, and there bought a lot and erected 
upon it a large store, and for five years employed his capital and 
energies there, in total indifierenee to the business interests of Gales- 
burg. He made very little improvement upon his lands, and for 
many years a large portion of the amount due on them remained 
unpaid. The College, therefore, was never greatly benefitted by 
him. The whole sum engaged to be paid by all Congregational 
purchasers, for farm lands, previous to the year 1852, was only 
|8,480. Of this, a large portion remained unpaid for many years. 
Plainly, therefore, the College did not receive very much money 
from CongTegational sources. Mr. Blanchard is represented in the 
"Rights of Congregationalists" as one of the 6 c/r/y purchasers of 
College lands, and as having ^9«/c7 for them, greatly to the prosper- 
ity of the College. The truth is this : Mr. Blanchard bought his 
lands for 82,400, in 1852, seventeen years after the College was 
founded. In 1857, when he was removed from the Presidency, he 
had 2^cdd the iyiterest on the amount and no more. The College then 
donated\nm. 81,400, and credited him with that sum on his note. 
After this was done, he brought in a bill of S200 against the College, 
which was allowed, and then modestly asked for the balance of his 
note. His request was not granted, and the note remains unpaid. 
In this way he assisted in " starting " the College, with his money. 
These trifles would not have been noticed, had not the "Rights of 
Congregationalists " claimed that Knox College owes nearly all its 
success to the money paid for its farm lands by Congregationalists, 
and that it was especially their money " which started the College," 
and which has endowed it. The simple truth concerning all of them 
is, that practically the College has endoiced them. Galesburg owes 
its intelligence, and enterprise, and consequent prosperity to the 
College. 

PRAIRIE COLLEGE. 

The Board of Trustees, appointed by the founders of the Col- 
lege, met on the 8th day of January, 1836, the day after their ap- 
pointment, in Whitesboro', Xew York, and organized, and trans- 
acted some business, of which the following items are of present 
interest : " Voted that Gale and Ferris be a committee to provide 
for building a College edifice and house of entertainment:" "Voted 
that Messrs. Gale and West be a committee to provide for a mill, and 

:" " Voted that H. H Kellog^o- be a com- 



37 

mittee to devise plans, etc , for a Female Seminary." The Board 
met again, in the same place, on the 2nd day of March, following, 
when it was "Voted that a boarding-honse, of one and a half 
stories high, twenty-six by thirty-six feet on the ground, be im- 
mediately erected :" "Voted that N. H. Losey be appointed a sur- 
veyor for the colony, and that the expense of surveying be paid 
out of the College fund." The reader will bear in mind that these 
two meetings of the Board were held in New York, before a single 
settler had found his way to Galesburg, and before an acre of land 
had been sold there. At these meetings it was determined to pro- 
ceed immediately to erect a College edifice, a house of entertain- 
ment, a mill, a boarding-house, and to prepare plans for a Female 
Seminary. These facts show clearly that the founders of the Col- 
lege had already provided the means which would " start itf and 
that they did not depend alone upon future sales of land for the 
first movement. 

The Board met again at N'ew Hartford, N. Y., August 31st, 1836, 
when it was " Resolved that a Committee of five be appointed to 
inquire into the propriety of applying to the Legislature for an act 
of incorporation, the ensuing winter, and to make such application 
if by them it be deemed expedient." 

A petition for a charter Avas prepared, in which the names of 
eleven persons were designated as Trustees ; the Board when full 
was to consist of twenty-five members, including the President. of 
the College ; the remainder of the Board were to be appointed by 
those already designated. The petition was acted upon, and a 
charter granted by the Legislature of Illinois, in February, 1837, at 
Vandalia. In the Charter the name was changed from " Prairie 
College " to " Knox Manual Labor College." (The name was 
changed to " Knox College " by act of Legislature, in February, 
1857; the " Manual Labor " system having been abandoned at an 
early date.) The new Board appointed in the Charter, did not meet 
and organize until in August, 1837. In the mean time, the Board 
of Prairie College continued to act, as it did also for some months 
after the new organization. Under date of March 28th, 1837, at 
Galesburg, they " Resolved that a Committee of three be appointed 
to fix on a spot for a permanent burying ground for the colony, to 
lay out and procure a survey of the same," etc. At the same 
meeting, the " Committee on Rents reported that there were six 
houses belonging to the Trustees, besides the school house." It 



38 KNOX COLLEGE. 

was also "Voted that a Committee of three be appointed to inquire 
into the condition of the funds, lands, etc., belonging to the Trus- 
tees, and everything pertaining to the College, that this Board may 
be prepared to make a correct statement to the new Board, and to 
convey to them the property of this Board." 

" April 20th, 1837 : Voted that five acres, or the south half of 
the ten acre lot, on the west side of the village plat, and extending 
north to Main street, be laid out for a burying ground : " also 
" Voted that the College buildings be erected directly south of 
Broad street, sixty rods from the street running east and west on 
the south side of the village." 

"June loth, 1837: Voted that the treasurer be instructed to 
loan to Mr. John Kendall two thousand dollars: " also "Voted to 
loan the Mill Company a sum not to exceed $1,500." 

"July 21st, 1837: Voted that the Chairman call the incorpo- 
rated Board of Trustees of Knox Manual Labor-College to meet on 
the second Wednesday of August, at the house' of John G. Sanborn 
of Knoxville: " also "Voted that all the College lands on sections 
fourteen and twenty-three, making three hundred and twenty acres, 
be deeded to persons in trust, for the purpose of a Theological 
Seminary." At a subsequent meeting, on the 1st day of August, 
1837, the same Board voted " that the south-east block of the vil- 
lage plat, as it now is, be reserved for the site of a Theological Sem- 
inary, if it should be wanted for that purpose." These lands, thus 
set apart for a Theological Seminary, were designed exclusively for 
a Presbyterian Seminary. This was the intention of the donors, as 
they have always claimed, and the committee who held the land in 
trust always acted in view of that intention, and always held the land 
for the Presbyterian body, and for no other. When it was proposed, 
a few years ago, to establish a New School Presbyterian Theological 
Seminary in the North-west, this property was oftered as an induce- 
ment to locate the institution in Galesburg. The Seminary was not 
located there, and in 1853 the land all reverted to the College. The 
three hundred and twenty acres had been included, in the mean time, 
within the corporate limits of the city, and nearly all have since been 
sold at high prices. A large share of the present funds of the College 
has been derived from the sale of these lands. The toion property 
has ever been the chief source of loealth to the College. This prop- 
erty has been bought by all classes of people, having all shades of 
religious belief If the control of the College were to be vested, in 
accordance with the latest claim, in those Avho have paid their money 
into its treasury in exchange for its lands, the College Board would 
embrace the representatives of almost all forms of belief that are 
known "under the whole heavens." And the share of Congre- 
gationalists in such a Board, for their portion of money paid, would 
be small indeed. 



NEW ORGANIZATION. 39 



"NEW ORGANIZATIOK 



" August 9th, 1837 : Trustees of Knox Manual Labor College met 
for the first time, at the house of Matthew Chambers, of Knoxville. 
Present — John Waters, George W. Gale, John G. Sanborn, George 
H. Wright, Parnach Owen, Erastus Swift, Thomas Simmons, Mat- 
thew Chambers, Nehemiah West and N. H. Losey. 

John Waters was chosen President, N. H. Losey, Clerk, and 
John G. Sanborn, Treasurer, for the term of one year. 

On motion, it was resolved that Wm. Holyoke, Peter Butler, of 
Monmouth, and Silvanus Ferris be added to the Board of Trustees. 

On motion, the following preamble and resolution were adopted : 

Wheeeas, an Association of gentlemen, in the State of New 
York, was formed with a view of establishing a College, and other 
Seminaries, in this State, and having purchased lands and raised 
funds for said object, in Knox county, township eleven north, of 
range one east, of the fourth principal meridian ; and whereas, by a 
petition from said Association and others, a charter for a College 
and Preparatory School, with power to add Professorships of Law 
and Medicine, in said township, has been granted by the Legislature 
of this State ; we, the persons named as Trustees in said charter, 
have been organized this day : And whereas, the said Association 
have proposed to make over said property to this Board, 

Hesolved, That we will receive said property, and all of it, with 
the express design of carrying into effect the original purpose of 
said Association, so far as the charter and the means in our hands, 
or to be received, shall permit. 

On motion, Hesolved, That a committee of three be appointed 
for six months, to execute the orders of the Board of Trustees. 

Resolved, That the committee above named, who shall be styled 
the Executive Committee, be authorized to sell and dispose of the 
lands which may be granted to this Board, under such regulations 
as have been heretofore adopted by the Association, denominated 
the ' Trustees of Prairie College,' and that said Executive Commit- 
tee be governed by the resolutions and orders of said Association 
in the management of the property and funds belonging to, or 
which may be deeded to this Board." 

The Corporate Board having fully organized, the former Board 
met "January 19th, 1838," when " on motion, it was Resolved, That 
deeds of all the Colony purchase be made from the Purchasing 
Committee to the Corporate Board of Trustees, and from them to 
individuals ; except such parts of the purchase as were laid out into 
village property, and such other property as is designed for the 
benefit of a Theological Seminary." 

''^Resolved, That the above excepted property be deeded directly 
from the Purchasing Committee to a Committee of Trust, who shall 
manage it according to the instructions to be contained in the deed 
of conveyance." 

The same Board, at a meeting held "Feb. 12th, 1838, Resolved, 



40 KNOX COLLEGE. 

That it is expedient to deed the village property to the incorporated 
Board of Trustees ; and that the property designed for the benefit 
of a Theological Seminary only be deeded to a Committee of 
Trust." 

"Feb. 19th, 1838. Resolved^ That the south-east quarter of 
block 24, be reserved for a meeting house." 

" A meeting of the Trustees of Knox Manual Labor College was 
held March 7th, 1838," at which, after enumerating the donations of 
lots made by the old Board for a burying ground, a meeting-house, 
etc., it was ^^Resolved^ That said burying ground be deeded to the 
Trustees of The Presbyterian Society of Galesbueg ; and that 
the meeting-house and parsonage lots be deeded also to said trus- 
tees^ for the uses mentioned above." 

'''"Resolved^ That the President and Secretary be directed to give 
deeds to all who have purchased land of the former proprietors^ on 
the conditions of the purchase as specified in their books : Provided, 
the purchasers give sufiicient security to this Board for moneys un- 
paid on such purchase." 

^''Resolved, That all deeds for lands in this township, given by 
this Board, have a clause attached to the same prohibiting the 
manufacture or sale of intoxicating drinks." 

The last resolution was soon after modified so as to apply only to 
village property, and not to farms. 

The foregoing records and other facts taken from the College 
books, sliQw conclusively that the act of the Subscribers at their 
last meeting in founding the College, was not a mere form, but that 
the College was in the fullest sense founded at that time. They 
show that the Subscribers at that meeting not ouly founded the 
College, but also endowed it — how abundantly we shall soon see. 
They show that from the beginning the College had money in its 
treasury, and that very little of that money came from Congrega- 
tionahsts. The College funds in 1836, the first year of its existence, 
were in such a state that the Board were able to expend in purchas- 
ing timber and new prairie lands and other property, a sum exceed- 
ing $9,000. The treasurer stated in a report dated May 1st, 1838, 
a few weeks only after the date of the last record given above, 
that the "available funds" of the College and the interest due 
thereon, amounted to $24,158.58. By "available funds" in these 
reports is meant the notes and other securities held by the College, 
upon which it received interest; The phrase includes no other 
kinds of property. The next year, "Kov. 5, 1839," the " available 
funds" were reported to amount to $29,714.86, after paying all the 
indeUedness of the Board. In 1843, when the Academy and Pre- 
paratory Department had been in complete operation five years, 



THE ENDOWMENT. 41 

and the College two years, and when heavy expenses had been 
incurred for buildings and other improvements, the " available 
funds," which remained unexhausted, were reported as amounting 
to 126,068.56. The total value, at that time, of all the College 
property, was stated in the same report to be equal to $74,514.56. 
From that time until the present, the farm lands and village property 
of the College have continually advanced in value, and although 
large sums of money have been expended for instruction and for 
buildings and other objects, yet the " available funds " have steadily 
increased until now they amount to near $206,000. The total value 
of all the property owned by the College at the present time, is 
about $400,000. 

THE ENDOWMENT. 

The following facts will show the sources from which the endow- 
ment of the College has been derived, and also the total value of all 
the property which it has ever owned : 

1. The principal source of all the wealth of the College has been 
the lands donated by its founders. Of six hundeed thousand 
dollars' worth of property, w^iich the College has held, as will 
soon be shown, all but about forty-six thousand dollars'' worth, has 
been derived from those lands. The founders also donated eight 
thousand dollars in money — this sum being the excess which they 
paid into the College treasury above the entire cost of the whole 
enterprise down to the time the donation was made. The public 
will judge whether the men who made those donations of land and 
money to a College of their own creating are not entitled to the 
credit of having endowed it. 

2. The Rev. H. H. Kellogg, while President of the College, ob- 
tained, when in England, in 1844, at the World's Convention, a 
small donation, in money and in books, valued at about $2,000. 

In 1844, Rev. G. W. Gale obtained among his personal friends in 
New York and elsewhere about 1,600 volumes of books for the College 
library, and over $2,000 in money, a part of which was expended 
for a philosophical apparatus. He also obtained some other articles, 
which were sold for the College. Mr. Gale states that the greater 
part of these donations came from gentlemen connected with Pres- 
byterian, Episcopalian and Unitarian churches. In New England he 
obtained some money, chiefly from gentlemen in Boston, among 
whom were Messrs. Lawrence, Appleton, Lowell, Peter Brooks, and 



42 KNOX COLLEGE. 

their friends, none of whom were Congregationalists. These dona- 
tions were about equal to $4,000. 

3. In 1844, J. P. Williston, Esq., a Congregationalist, of North 
Hampton, Mass., became interested in the College, through Mr. 
Gale, its agent at the time, and commenced making small donations, 
of a few hundred dollars each year, which he continued for a 
period of eleven years. At the end of the eleven years, when his 
donations ceased, he had contributed to the College funds, accor- 
ding to the treasurer's books, about |8,000. Mr. Blanchard has 
credited him with $2,000 more than this amount, but that sum was 
given principally to indigent students, and not to the College. Mr. 
Williston had been a donor to the College two years before Mr. Blanch- 
ard became its President. After that event, his donations were de- 
voted almost wholly to the salary of Mr. Blanchard. In a letter written 
by him two years ago, since Mr. Blanchard's removal from the 
College, and published at the time in Galesburg, he distinctly de- 
clared that in contributing to Knox College, he had no interest in 
the question whether it was 4o be under Presbyterian or 
Congregational control. 

The reader will bear in mind that when Mr. Williston commenced 
his small annual donations, the College property was worth about 
180,000, of which amount, nearly $30,000 were " available funds." 
At the end of eleven years, his donations ceased, because the Col- 
lege was then too rich to need what he could give. It is simply 
absurd, therefore, to claim, as the "Rights of Congregationalists" 
does, that " in a dark and trying hour, he came forward " and 
saved the College ; and that the donations made at that period, 
principally by him, were so valuable, that without them " all the 
previous endowments and property would have been entirely con- 
sumed in current expenses, and the very life of the institution 
endangered." Mr. Williston is a man of honorable sentiments, and 
would not willingly suffer his friends to magnify unduly and to 
the injury of others, the importance of his benefactions. His dona- 
tions were made from generous impulses, and his name will ever be 
cherished by the College, as one of its benefactors. But the 
College did not depend upon him for its life. 

4. The Society for promoting Collegiate and Theological educa- 
tion at the West, began to aid Knox College in 1846, and continued 
its aid until 1855, when the College had become so prosperous as to 
need no further aid from that source. Rev. Theron Baldwin, 



THE ENDOWMENT. 43 

Corresponding Secretary of that Society, in a letter addressed to 
the writer, gives "the sum. of $5,864.88, as standing on the books 
of the Society, charged to Knox College." 

5. In 1853, the Hon. Charles Phelps, of Cincinnati, Ohio, donated 
to the College, eighteen quarter-sections of land, lying in Illinois. 
The donation was made, not to the general funds of the College, 
but for the specific purpose of establishing and supporting one or 
more new professorships. The lands were not to be sold until they 
would bring ten dollars an acre, or a total of $28,880. The follow- 
ing statement, made by John G. Sanborn, Esq., of Knoxville, a 
member of the Board of Trustees of the College, and agent of Mr. 
Phelps for many years, will show the value of the land when the 
donation was made. 

"I was, for several years, agent for Charles Phelps, Esq., late of 
Cincinnati, Ohio, and had a full list of the lands which he owned 
in Illinois, and was familiar with the value of them, and regularly 
paid the taxes for him, and at the time of his donation to Knox Col- 
lege I estimated the value of the lands donated by him, to be from 
twelve to fifteen thousand dollars. 

John G. Sanboen. 

Knoxville, July 5, 1859. 

In the report of the Treasurer presented to the Board at its annual 
meeting in June, 1854, one year after the donation had been received, 
it was reported as worth $20,356.95. Since that time, all the land, 
but four quarter-sections, has been sold. The title to three of these 
quarter-sections is disputed, and is, perhaps, worthless. The last 
report of the Treasurer, presented in June, 1859, states that the 
amount received for the portion of these lands sold, is ($24,672.15) 
twenty-four thousand six hundred and seventy-two dollars and 
fifteen cents. The same report estimates the four quarter-sections 
unsold as worth $10 an acre, which would make their entire value 
equal to $6,400. The College has an undisputed right to only one 
of them, the value of which is $1,600. This sum, added to the 
above, gives the entire present value of this donation at $26,272.15. 
After these statements by the agent of Mr. Phelps and by the Treas- 
urer of the College, the reader is asked to notice the statement con- 
cerning the same matter made in the " Rights of Congregationalists," 
which, it will be remembered, is a report presented at the last annual 
meeting of the Congregational General Association of this State, 
and adopted, as true^ by the unanimous vote of that body, as their 
own minutes declare. That report, after stating truly, but indefi- 



4A KNOX COLLEGE. 

nitely, that the present endowment of Knox College is " from three 
to four hundred thousand dollars in amount," then adds as follows : 
" The present endowment of the College is almost entirely the pro- 
ceeds of the gift of Hon. Charles Phelps, a Congregationalist." And 
again it says: "We are next called to consider the munificent gift 
of the late Hon. Charles Phelps, who gave to the College eighteen 
quarter-sections of land, in Illinois, estimated to be worth at the 
time $30,000, and noio constituting the principal part of the College 
endowment of over |300,000." The same report represents the 
donation as having been made to the College at a time when, without 
this " timely aid," the College must have exhausted all its other 
property in mere " current expenses," and have become entirely 
bankrupt — (p. 26.) If the committee who drew up that report, and 
if the Association who adopted it, knew anything of the matter, 
they must have known that Mr. Phelps' donation was not made to the 
College until in 1853, after it had become comparatively rich; they 
must have known, also, that the College has received from that dona- 
tion less than $25,000 in money ; they must have known, also, that, 
even had the '•^proceeds " been large, and had the College at the 
same time been poor and embarrassed, yet these funds of Mr. Phelps 
could, in no manner, have relieved the College and have saved its 
other property, for those funds were given for the specific purpose 
of endowing new professorships, and could be used for no other pur- 
pose ; they must have known that their entire statement icas false. 
But if they knew nothing of the matter, with certainty, then why 
publish such statements as "indubitable facts?" The chairman of 
the committee by whom the above report was drawn up has, since 
its publication, announced in the " Congregational Herald," that 
their " statement that the present funds of the College were chiefly 
derived from the gift of land by Judge Phelps is not correct.'''' Yet 
he says "the error in no wise affects the position of the report; it 
does not vary in any case the general result!'''' Think of that, dear 
reader, an error of over $300,000 is such a mere trifle that " it 'vnno 
wise effects the position of the report !" Is not that a sublime self- 
confidence! The report is to be taken as strictly accurate in every 
other respect, notwithstanding the admission of so grave an error 
in respect to a matter wherein it was so easy to know and state the 
exact truth. The admission of so serious a mistake in respect to so 
simple a matter does very materially " aff"ect the position of the 
report ;" it at once destroys all confidence in the lohole report. If 



LETTER OF SAMUEL W. FISHER. 45 

the committee did not know the truth about this matter, how shall 
we believe that they knew it about other matters ? 

The denominational relations of Judge Phelps, when his donation 
was made, will appear from the following statements, made with 
direct reference to this point, by Rev. Samuel W. Fisher, D. D., 
President of Hamilton College, New York, but for many years pre- 
vious to last year, pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church in Cin- 
cinnati. 

"Hamilton College, Clinton, Dec. 9, 1858. 

" Judge Phelps came to Cincinnati from Vermont, some little 
time before I came to that city, more than twelve years ago. In 
Vermont he was connected with a Congregational Church. He 
began to attend my church soon after I took charge of it. lie pur- 
chased a pew in it, and attended there until the day of his death. 
I attended his funerah His v^idow occupies the same pew, and is 
still an attendant there. A daughter and a son-in-law, now residing 
with their mother, united with my church on profession last July, 
just before my leaving. Judge Phelps was an attendant there when 
he made the donation to Knox College. I do not think Judge 
Phelps, if alive, would be much concerned as to which denomina- 
tion had the control of the College. His mind did not occupy itself 
with the points that distinguish them. His object was to promote 
Christian education at the West. Most certainly he had not^ nor 
has his widow, or any of his children with whom I have an acquaint- 
ance, any objection to having the College under Presbyterian con- 
trol. As members of a Presbyterian Church, several of them would 
naturally prefer it. 

Samuel W. Fisher." 

From the above explicit testimony of Dr. Fisher, it is evident 
that, unless it be wholly impossible to fall from the grace of Con- 
gregationalism after having once so much as professed it. Judge 
Phelps had totally abandoned his connection with that system du- 
ring at least the last twelve years of his life. This will appear the 
more certain from the well known fact that, before he left Vermont 
he had left the Congregational Church there, from some dissatisfac- 
tion, and had attended the Baptist Church. He had been some 
seven years a constant attendant upon and a supporter of a Presby- 
terian Church in Cincinnati when he made his donation to Knox 
College, In justice to himself and to his surviving family, there- 
fore, his donation is to be credited to the Presbyterian body, and 
not to the Congregational. The reader will no doubt be interested 
in knowing how this matter concerning Judge Phelps is stated in 
the "Rights of Congregationalists." That report says: "Mr. 



46 KNOX COLLEGE. 

Phelps was in senthneiit a Congregationalist, though not a church 
member. By reason of a local difficulty, he left and ^Yent to the 
Baptist Church, with which his wife subsequently united, and in 
that denomination he continued to worship at the East, and after 
his removal to the West, during the remainder of his life.'''' Com- 
pare that statement with President Fisher's declaration, that during 
the last twelve years of his life. Judge Phelps attended the Presby- 
terian Church, of which he, Dr. Fisher, was pastor. 

The logic of the report is not less remarkable than its facts. Its 
argument is this : first, that Mr. Phelps was never a member of any 
Congregational Church — then, that while in Vermont, he gave up all 
attendance upon even the religious services of that body, and be- 
came an attendant upon those of a Baptist Church, with which his 
wife united as a member — and then, that after removing to the West, 
and " during the remainder of his life," he had no further connection 
with the Congregational Church, but remained with the Baptist — 
and therefore "he was a Congregationalist!" 

, The entire amount of property ever owned by the College, has 
come from the sources above enumerated, except a few hundred 
dollars derived from uncertain sources. It will be seen that no ac- 
count is made of money received for tuition in the A^arious depart- 
ments of the institution. There were ninety -four and a half scholar- 
ships attached to the first lands sold, each scholarship entitling the 
holder to send a pupil for instruction for the period of twenty -five 
years, to either the Academy, the Preparatory Department, the 
Young Ladies' Seminary, or the College. These scholarships, when 
not used by the owners, have commonly been sold to students from 
year to year, at a rate a little less than the price of tuition in the 
several departments of the College. Hence very little money has 
ever been received from students. The Academy, from which 
nearly all the money paid for tuition is received, has been for several 
years an expense to the College Board, although it has had from two 
hundred to three hundred students each year.. 

The Academy and the Preparatory Department of the College, 
were opened in 1838. The first class entered the College in 1841. 
A " Female Collegiate Department," which is a fully organized 
Seminary for young ladies, having its own separate corps of instruc- 
tors, and its own buildings, has been in successful operation for 
several years. All these departments are under the control of the 
College Board, and all alike depend upon the same general funds 



VALUE OF DONATIONS. 47 

for their support. For the management of its property — for insu- 
rance — for taxes, which until recently had to be paid — for loss on 
buildings destroyed by fire, and by wear of time — for agents — for 
teachers — for lands donated to churches and railroad companies — 
for village lots thrown open to the public as a park, and not included in 
the lands reported by the treasurer, as a part of present property — for 
all such expenses, the College has paid out, lost or donated, as esti- 
mated by the treasurer — by the former agents — and by several trus- 
tees, an amount considerably more than $200,000. That this esti- 
mate is very much too small, can be seen from the fact that during 
the last four years alone, the cost of instruction and the care of 
buildings, excluding all other expenses, has been about $60,000. 

The last annual report of the Treasurer states the present value of 
the College property, including money, lands and buildings, at 
$366,095.15. This sum includes $26,2'72.15, the present value of 
the Phelps Fund, which amount, if deducted from the former, will 
leave $339,823. 

The reader is now in possession of all the facts relating to the 
money and lands ever donated to the College. That the whole 
matter may be taken in at a single view, the several facts above 
given are here presented in a brief 

EE CAPITULATION. 

Donated by Subscribers in money $8,000 00 

" through Messrs. Kellogg and Gale . . 6,000 00 

" by J. P. Williston 8,000 00 

" by College Society 5,864 88 

" by Charles Phelps, present value. . . 26,2^72 15 

Other College property, at present time 339,823 00 

Am't expended, donated, lost etc., from 1836, 200,000 00 

Total , $593,960 03 

It thus appears that the entire value of all the property ever owned 
by the College is almost six hundred thousand dollars. The several 
donations made by all parties who were not Subscribers, it will be 
seen, amount to $46,137.03. This sum deducted from the total amount 
ever owned by the College, leaves $547,823. And this sum of five 

HUNDRED AND FOETY-SEVEN THOUSAND, EIGHT HUNDEED AND TWEN- 

TY-THEEE DOLLAES, IS the product of that donation of land and 
money made to the College hy the men who founded it. All the other 
donations, except that made by Mr. Phelps, which has only become 



4:8 KNOX COLLEGE. 

available within the last three or four years, were exhausted imme- 
diately in current exj^enses. The endowment of the College has come 
wholly from the donation made by the Subscribers and by Mr. Phelps. 
Let the statement be repeated here, that of almost six hundred 
thousand dollars, all but about forty-six thousand came from the 
donation made by the founders of the College. The men who gave 
that property were all Presbyterians but one, who was a Congrega- 
tionalist. The money paid by that one, was less than one-thirtieth 
of the whole amount paid by the Subscribers, in order to found and 
endow the College. One-thirtieth of the entire proceeds of the 
original donation, $547, 823, amounts to $18,260.77, which is to be 
credited to Congregationalists ; while the balance, amounting to 
$529,562.23, is to be credited to Presbyterians. 

By crediting each denomination with the amount of all the dona- 
tions made by parties connected with it, we shall be able to see how 
much has been given by Congregationalists and how much by 
Presbyterians. 

CONGEE GATIONAL DONATIONS. 

By one Subscriber, proceeds of lands $18,260 77 

" J. P. Williston 8,000 00 

" College Society, one half 2,932 44 

Total by Congregationalists $29,193 21 

PEESBYTEEIAN DONATIONS. 

By Subscribers $529,562 23 

*' Messrs. Kellogg and Gale, as above 6,000 00 

" College Society, one half 2,932 44 

" Charles Phelps 26,272 15 

Total by Presbyterians $564,766 82 

Thus it is seen the College has received from Congregational 
sources, from the time it was founded, until now, property equal in 
value to twenty-nine thousand, one hundred and ninety-three dol- 
lars and twenty-one cents. During the same time, it has received 
from Presbyterian sources, property equal to five hundred and sixty- 
four thousand, seven hundred and sixty-six dollars and eighty-two 
cents. These facts will show the " Rights of Congregationalists in 
Knox College." Yet the reader must remember the whole Plan 
originated with Presbyterians. It was their wisdom and their 
energy, that secured the success of that Plan. They originated 
that Plan with no purpose or thought of inviting other denomina- 



KNOX COLLEGE. 49 

tions to become partners with them in it. They did intend to build 
up a College for the wants of the West, and not of a denomination, 
but they did not intend to put the control of that College into any 
other hands than Presbyterians. They called no convention 
of diflferent denominations to consult about the work, and to take 
part with them in its accomplishment. There was no recognized 
imion of denominations in founding Knox College. It was a private 
enterprise, by members of the Presbyterian Church. One Congre- 
gationalist joined with them for his own personal benefit ; but his 
connection did not vary the character of the Plan in any degree. 
He made no stipulations for himself as a Congregation alist. Had 
he proposed any they would have been peremptorily rejected. The 
Plan was developed, — the work was in progress when he united 
in it. He did his part worthily among the founders of the College, 
and he shall ever receive his full share of the credit which belongs 
to those founders. But in the inception and shaping of that Plan, 
he had no part. When received as a Subscriber, it was with no 
condition, express or implied, that through him was to be trans- 
mitted to the whole Congregational body, for all time to come, a 
perfect right of inheritance and control in the College. Such a 
right he never claimed ; such a right never was granted. Indeed, 
it probably was not known to more than one of the other Subscri- 
bers, that Mr. Simmons was a Congregationalist when the College 
was founded. This appears from the testimony of the founders 
given below. While it is true that as a question of right, the 
Congregationalists had no partnership in the College, or at most, 
only a share equal to one-thirtieth of the whole, it is nevertheless 
true that the College has been, and ever will he conducted on most 
liberal principles toward them. They have always been generously 
represented in the Board and in the Faculty. They have more 
members now among the Trustees, than Presbyterians have ; and 
they constitute a majority of the College Faculty. The Presbyterian 
members of the Board have voted unanimously for every Congre- 
gationalist in the Faculty. They have unanimously elected Con- 
gregationalists as Trustees. They did not elect as many of that 
denomination as are now found in the Board. Some of those who 
were selected from the, Ministry and Eldership of the Presbyterian 
Church, and were appointed to the Board because they were Pres- 
byterians, as they professed, have since become the most decided 
Congregationalists. In this way has the present strength of Con- 
gregationalists in the College Board been secured. 
4 



50 KNOX COLLEGE. 

TESTIMONY OF THE FOUNDERS. 

In determining the denominational relations of the founders of 
the College, and the question to whom its control, both legally and 
morally belongs, the public can have nothing more reliable than the 
testimony of those founders themselves. The founders of a College 
have a right, both in law and equity, to determine into whose hands 
it shall be placed. They are the most competent witnesses to settle 
a controversy as to what their own intentions were. They know 
with certainty to what body of Christians, if to any, they belonged ; 
and hence their statements on the point must settle the question. 
A large collection of letters and certificates has been received from 
the founders of Knox College, respecting these questions. The 
testimony is uniform and unhesitating, that they were, with but 
one exception, Presbyterians ; and most of them did not know of 
even that one exception. They declare explicitly, that they had 
no thought of transmitting the control of the College to any others 
than Presbyterians. The recent attempt to make it appear that 
these men, even if nominally Presbyterians, were so only by 
connection with " Plan-of-Union " Churches, and w^ere in fact 
Congregationalists, will be set at rest by the men themselves. 
Moreover, as the list of the founders will show, a large number of 
them were Elders of churches, and every one who knows what a 
" Plan-of-Union " Church is, knows that one of its essential features 
is that it has no Elders. 

Mr. Blanchard, who always counts largely upon either the 
ignorance or the credulity of the public, in his statements, has ven- 
tured so far as to speak, in a printed letter of his, two years ago, of 
a "Plan-of-Union Presbyterian, a ruling Elder.'''' No man knew 
better than he that "Plan-of-Union" Churches had no "ruling 
Elders ; " and he knew also, that the man of whom he spoke, Mr. 
N. West, was a " ruling Elder " in that church which he called 
" Plan-of-Union," and was moreover a decided Presbyterian. 

In addition to the Elders, the list of founders shows a large num- 
ber of Presbyterian ministers, and these will hardly be claimed as 
Congregationalists, even by those who are able to believe in '• Plan- 
of-Union ruling Elders." It is worthy of remark in this connection, 
that the " Rights of Congregationalists " uniformly assumes that 
a member of a Plan-of-Union Church is ipso facto, not a Presby- 
terian, and is a Congregationalist. 



TESTIMONY OF FOUNDEES. 51 

The first letter given below, from the founders of the College, is 
very properly that of Rev. George W. Gale, D. D., who originated 
the Plan, and whose efibrts were the principal means of carrying it 
into successful operation. 

LETTER OF REV. G. W. GALE, D. D. 

*' I was born in the State of !N'ew York, and graduated at Union 
College. I studied for the Ministry in Princeton Theological Semi- 
nary, was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of Hudson, and 
was ordained by the Presbytery of St. Lawrence, now Watertown. 
While I have always cherished feelings of great kindness and 
brotherly love toward Christians of other denominations, and have 
rejoiced in whatever contributed to their true prosperity, yet in all 
my preferences, and in all my professions, I have always been a 
Presbyterian. While I have admired many things in the history of 
Congregationalism, yet my clearest convictions have ever been, 
that the apostolic church was not modelled after that fashion. 

The Plan for founding Knox College originated with me. I spent 
much time and money in maturing the Plan and in enlisting my 
friends in it. The great object of my life, since the College has 
been founded, has been to make it an institution second to no other 
in its means of furnishing a thorough education to its students, and 
one which should be worthy of the most liberal patronage of the 
public. It was never my design to found a sectarian College. It 
was to be a College open to all the youth of our land, without any 
reference to their relations to Christian denominations. But while 
the College was founded for all denominations, it was not founded 
hy all. It was exclusively a Preshyterian enterprise. It was always 
so understood among all its founders. The Subscribers to my Plan, 
by whom the College was founded, were all secured by myself, and 
I was well acquainted with their Church relations. They were all 
decided Presbyterians except Mr. Simmons, who was a Congrega- 
tionalist. A large number of them were ministers and elders in the 
Presbyterian Church, and almost all were my personal friends. Mr. 
Simmons heard of our Plan and became a Subscriber, but with no 
purpose, on that account, of claiming any share in the control of 
the College as a Congregationalist. We never expected to yield the 
College to any others than those who should represent our own 
opinions as Presbyterians. If others were invited to share in that 



52 KITOX COLLEGE. 

control, it was only as a matter of comity, and for the sake of the 
prosperity of the College, and not from any original right which 
they had. The intention of the founders in resjject to the future 
control of the College is clearly evinced by their action in appoint- 
ing the Board of " Prairie College," and afterward in appointing 
the corporate Board. The men to whom they committed their Col- 
lege in both Boards were almost all Presbyterians. As the coopera- 
tion of others was desirable, they elected, during the early years 
of the College, some from among the Episcopal, the Congregational, 
and the Old School Presbyterian Churches. But their election did 
not result from any right those denominations had to be represented 
in the College Board. And the number of New School Presbyteri- 
ans in the Board greatly preponderated over all other parties united, 
as it was intended they should. This continued to be the case for 
years, until after Mr. Bl an chard became President, when he suc- 
ceeded in bringing about a different state of things in the Board. 
The change he aimed at could never have been secured except from 
a change of sentiments on the part of some who were in the Board. 
Several trustees, who were ministers or elders in Presbyterian 
Churches when elected, and who were elected because they were 
Presbyterians, have since become very decided Congregationalists. 
They united with others who were Congregationalists when ap- 
pointed, and under the leadership of Mr. Blanchard, have been 
laboring for the past few years to secure to Congregationalists a 
majority over all others in the Board, and thus to wrest the College 
from its founders. Mr. Blanchard was elected President of the 
College in 1845. At the time our thoughts were directed to him for 
this appointment, he was a Presbyterian minister of a Presbyterian 
Church in Cincinnati. Had we supposed then that he would be- 
come a Congregationalist when elected, he would never have been 
proposed as a candidate. Our former President, Rev. H. H. Kel- 
logg, had been a Presbyterian. Mr. Blanchard, just before his elec- 
tion, stated to us that if he became our President, he would prefer 
to connect with an Association of Congregationalists, but at the same 
time he assured us that this was merely a matter of personal prefer- 
ence, and that he had no zeal for Congregationalism. This an- 
nouncement gave many of us anxiety lest we should have trouble 
for the future, but our negotiations with him had then gone so far 
that it was thought best to complete them, and trust our peace to 
his honor. We soon found that we had introduced into the College 



TESTIMONY OF FOUNDERS. 53 

and into the colony a man of unbounded hostility to the Presby- 
terian Church. Soon after he came here he stated that there ought 
to be only two denominations in the State — the Old School Presby- 
terians, and the Congregationalists. He has labored with all dili- 
gence to exterminate the Church which he has forsaken, and to build 
up the Congregational Church on its ruins. It was my misfortune 
to occupy a position on this ground which placed me directly in the 
way of his projects. The College had been founded by Presby- 
terians. The colony here had been planted by them. The Church 
first organized in the place, and which was the only one here for 
many years, had been organized purely Presbyterian. The region 
of country about, for a circuit of fifty miles, contained many Presby- 
terian Churches, and not one Congregational, when we came here. 
The whole region was not so much as nominally occupied by an Asso- 
ciation at that time. Congregationalism was then hardly known in 
this part of Illinois. In the light of such facts, I did not feel it my 
duty to allow Mr. Blanchard to overturn all this work with no better 
object than that of the mere propagandist. I could not sufier the work 
of my own hands and that of my friends to be destroyed without at 
least a remonstrance. My opposition to Mr. Blanchard for these 
causes brought upon me a storm of wrath seldom equalled for vio- 
lence, and which has raged against me for the last ten years. In 
1848, a little more than two years after he became President, he 
addressed to me a letter, in which he distinctly presented to me this 
alternative, either to yield the Presbyterian interests here to Con- 
gregationalists, and secure their lasting gratitude for so doing, 
or else, by maintaining them, to meet with hostility and all its con- 
sequences. At that time there was in Galesburg a paper edited 
and published by a Presbyterian minister. Congregationalists were 
advised not to give it their support unless the editor would leave 
ills Presbytery and join the Association. Those of them who were 
connected with the First Presbyterian Church, were advised, also, 
not to unite in calling or supporting a minister for that Church, unless 
the Presbyterian members, who were a large majority, would con- 
sent to settle a Congregationalist. The letter of Mr. Blanchard pro- 
posed these measures for my acceptance, and also the dissolution of 
Knox Presbytery, as the only grounds on which I could be allowed 
to live in peace. I quote a few sentences from that letter, to con- 
firm my statements* The italics were made by Mr. Blanchard: 



54 KNOX COLLEGE. 

'Dec. 11, 1848. To Prof. Gale— Dear Brother: * * * Now 
you can take either one of three courses, in view of facts as they 
exist: 1st. You can quietly allow F — , (the Presbyterian editor) to 
join Association, and the Congregationalists to adopt his paper — 
allow a Congregational pastor to settle in this Church — our funds to 
Home Missions to go under Kirby's direction, to whose field we 
belong — merge Knox Presbytery in Peoria, or Schuyler, or one 
north — act as our daysman between us and Presbyterianism, in 
Chicago, and throughout the West and East — and make yourself, 
though not necessary to our existence as a College, yet necessary to 
our healthy, and in the highest degree, successful existence ; or, 
2nd. You can look on with comparative indifference ; or, 3rd, You 
can prevent brother F — joining Association, and, (for in reason and 
nature it is the same thing,) prevent Congregational ministers adopt- 
ing his paper. You can probably prevent for a time the peaceful 
settlement of a Congregational minister in this place. You can 
keep Knox Presbytery alive in its distinct existence. * * * I 
will suppose you to take the first or last of the above courses. If 
the first, in my humble judgment the following would be the result, 
to wit: You would be honored and courted as the representative 
of Presbyterianism, the good will of which is necessary to us, in- 
stead of being dreaded as the weakener of our home operations, 
newspaper, missions, etc. You would give the churches in this 
community peace. You would remove out of the way the only ob- 
stacle to our having a paper here which would make us respected at 
home and abroad. [The reader will bear in mind that this happy 
result would be secured, not by a new editor, but by a mere change, 
by the former editor, from Presbytery to Association. — Gale.] You 
will remove the only obstacle to our evangelical labors in this 
region. * * You would increase your own influence, however 
great it may now be in the Churches of Central Association, and 
make yourself courted as the representative of Presbyterianism 
abroad, while you loould not be dreaded as the representative of a 
disturbi7ig force in our midst. You would have, in short, all the 
advantages, from your principles, to yourself personally, which you 
can possibly have now, without that friction, which, by irritating the 
animal passions of men in the things of their religion, makes them 
desperate, and prone to every sort of extreme. 

On the other hand, if you resolve to keep up the Presbyterian 



TESTIMONY OF FOUNDEES. 00 

system in conjunction witli the others, * * all this is not going 
to take place without engendering ill blood, and crimination among 
our people. J. Blanchaed.' 

This proposition will, I trust, satisfy those who have heretofore 
doubted whether Mr. Blanchard ever openly and purposely made 
war upon Presbyterianism in this region. Here we have his own 
words. I did not, of course, feel disposed to yield long established 
and valuable rights, to one who was seeking with hostile efforts, to 
introduce a state of things among us, not known at the beginning. 
I refused to accept the very flattering offers made me — rejected the 
proffer of ' influence in the churches of Central Association ' — did 
not choose to occupy the position of 'representative of Presbyte- 
rianism abroad^ when all should be swept away at home — and, 
although I knew that, to Mr. Blanchard, our system was indeed ' a 
disturbing force,' yet I preferred to adhere to it, knowing that I 
was only maintaining what had been planted here by good men, and 
had been nurtured with many prayers. My steady adherence to 
Presbyterianism resulted, as Mr. Blanchard warned me it would, 
' in irritating the animal passions ' of himself and his followers, 
' in the things of their religion • — and this irritation, I have found 
to my cost, has made them all, and Mr. Blanchard in particular, 
' desperate^ and prone to every sort of extreme.'' 

Justice to Knox College, as well as to myself, has seemed to de- 
mand this exposure of the true cause of all the wrath with which 
Mr. Blanchard has pursued me for so many years. It was because 
I would not suffer him, without opposition, to exterminate from this 
ground the long established interests of those by whom the College 
had been founded — the colony planted — and this whole region made 
prosperous and attractive. 

The First Presbyterian Church in Galesburg was organized by 
myself, and by Bro. Noel, a committee of the Presbytery of Schuy- 
ler appointed for that purpose. It was organized as a purely Pres- 
byterian Church, and continued such for about eight years. There 
was not, during those early years, the slightest departure from strict 
Presbyterianism in its polity or in its administration. When the 
Church was formed by direction of the Presbytery of Schuyler, a 
majority of that Presbytery were Old School men, and would not 
have organized and received into its connection a church that was 
not strictly Presbyterian. The only thing brought forward now, as 



56 ■ KNOX COLLEGE. 

evidence that the Church was not strictly Presbyterian at first, is 
the fact that sometimes the members remained after preparatory 
lectures, to witness the examination of candidates for membership 
by the Session, and were occasionally asked to express their opinion 
of the examination by vote. This practice I introduced myself, as 
I had been accustomed to it in New York; and it was never pro- 
posed as any part of Congregationalism. When the Second Pres- 
byterian Church was organized by me in 1851, which was done for 
the express purpose of having a strictly Presbyterian Church, after 
the First Church had ceased to be such, I introduced the same prac- 
tice, w^hich certainly would not have been followed by that Church, 
as it was for a year or two, had it been supposed that it was in any 
manner an abandonment of strict Presbyterianism, and a concession 
to Congregationalism. The practice was adopted by me in New 
York, in place of the common method of ' propounding ' members 
to the Church. It also gave the Church an opportunity of acquaint- 
ing themselves fully with the Christian experience of those received 
into the Church. As I was pastor of the First Church in Galesburg 
for several years after its organization, I speak from personal knowl- 
edge, when I declare that from 1837 until 1845 it was strictly a 
Presbyterian Church. In 1845 a 'compromise' form of govern- 
ment was adopted, by which, while Presbyterian members retained 
all their rights. Congregational members received some privileges 
not before granted them. This was done as a concession on the part 
of the Church to its Congregational members, who were becoming 
somewhat numerous. Their method of gaining that concession was 
not honorable to their leaders. The Church had commenced build- 
ing a house of worship. Rev. L. H. Parker, and some others, induced 
the Congregationalists to refuse to pay their subscriptions and taxes 
for the house, unless the Presbyterians would consent to modify the 
government of the Church. By this measure they secured the 
' Compromise.' Having thus gained an ' entering wedge,' they 
have driven it perseveringly until the Church for several years past 
has been totally separated from all connection with the Presbyterian 
body. They, however, continue in possession of the property do- 
nated by the Presbyterian founders of the College to ' the Presby- 
terian Society ' of Galesburg. To do this, they call themselves a 
* Congregational Church,' by the name of ' The First Church of 
Christ,' and ' The First Presbyterian Society.' It is a Congrega- 
tional Church and a Presbyterian Society, if any one knows how 



TESTIMONY OF FOUNDEES. 57 

f 

such a conglomerate is possible. The very fact that the Church is 
willing, for the sake of its property, to occupy such a position, which 
would be pronounced dishonorable, if not fraudulent, in any merely 
secular corporation or society, shows the character of the moulding 
spirits, the master minds, by whom that Church has so long been 
educated and controlled. 

Since the removal of Mr. Blanchard from the Presidency of the 
College, the Congregationalists remain more numerous than Presby- 
terians in the Board. But with this they are not satisfied. They de- 
sire to become a majority over all others — and because disappointed 
in this, they have waged an incessant war upon the College during the 
last two years. If they cannot rule^ they seem determined to ruin. 
That the Lord will overrule all this storm, and cause even * the 
wrath of man to praise Him,' and to result in the future increased 
prosperity of the College, I have no doubt. The foundations of 
Knox College are embedded in too many prayers, and fervent de- 
sires to advance the cause of intelligence and pure religion, to be 
overturned by the ambition and sectarianism of such men as Mr. 
Blanchard and his followers. q_ xy q.^^-^ 

Galesburg, Dec, 1859." 

The next letter is from Mr. Silvanus Ferris, to whom the College 
is more indebted, for its success and present wealth, than to any 
other person except Mr. Gale. The property of the College was 
managed for a great many years by Mr. Ferris, as agent, and it is 
the unanimous opinion of the men in Galesburg best able to judge 
of the matter, that to his prudence and foresight the present wealth 
of the College is mainly due. 

LETTER OF S. FERRIS. 

"I was born in the year 1773, in the State of Connecticut, upon 
the borders of New York. When I was six years of age, my father 
removed his family into New York, in which State I continued to 
live until the year 1838, when I removed to Galesburg, in Illinois, 
where I have resided ever since. I was reared from childhood in 
the doctrines and under the influences of the Presbyterian Church. 
It was not until I had attained the age of manhood that I made a 
public profession of religion. I was then living in the town of Nor- 
way, New York. The Church with which I first united was in connec- 
tion with Presbytery, according to the well-known ' Plan-of-Union.' 



58 KNOX COLLEGE. 

By this ' Plan,' Presbyterians and Congregationalists were able to 
unite in the same church without any relinquishment, on the part of 
either, of their denominational preferences. I would have preferred 
to unite with a purely Presbyterian Church, had there been one in 
the place. I often attended the meetings of Presbytery, as a Dele- 
gate from the Church, while I was one of its members. 

I knew nothing of Congregational Associations while connected 
with this Church in Norway. The Church had no relations with 
any other body than the Presbytery. 

After several years I removed to the town of Russia, New York, 
and there found a fully organized Presbyterian Church, with which 
I united, and in whose connection I remained several years, until 
my removal to Illinois. 

When I came with my family to Galesburg, I joined the Presby- 
terian Church, which had just before been organized in that place. 
The Church was known as a regular, fully constituted Presbyterian 
Church at that time. I never heard, until several years afterward, 
any claims advanced in the Church, in behalf of Congregationalists. 
In 1845, the Constitution of the Church was modified, by adopting 
what is called the * Compromise,' whereby Congregationalists were 
allowed some privileges they had never enjoyed before. Until the 
time of the ' Compromise,' the Church was, in the full sense, Pres- 
byterian. In allowing to Congregationalists, as such, some privi- 
leges, it was not intended to take from Presbyterians any of their 
own. The Church retained its elders, and its connection with Pres- 
bytery, as before. In a few years, however, it was found that 
Congregational practices were undermining the original polity of 
the Church, and that Mr. Blanchard and others were determined to 
carry this on until the Church should lose all the distinct features of 
Presbyterianism. Finding that this result could not be prevented, 
without much confusion and strife in the Church, I proposed to the 
leading Presbyterian members of the Church a peaceable separation 
on our part from the others, and the organization of another fully 
Presbyterian Church. This was done in the year 1851, when the 
Second Presbyterian Church of Galesburg was formed. 

These facts are mentioned by me, that it may be known how 
wholly unfounded is the statement, which has of late been given to 
the public, that I was formerly a Congregationalist. / have never^ 
in sentiment or in profession^ been a Congregationalist in my whole 
life. 



TESTIMONY OF FOUNDEES. 59 

I was well acquainted with the Rev. Geo. W. Gale at the time 
he originated the Plan whereby Knox College was founded and en- 
dowed. He was a relative of ray wife, and for many years had been 
a warm friend of mine. The whole plan of the enterprise originated 
with him, as I know perfectly well. In 1835, he stated his plan to 
me, and from that time I engaged heartily with him in it, giving to 
it my time, and money, and personal efforts, as far as they were re- 
quired. Mr. Gale was a Presbyterian. Rev. Mr. Waters, Rev. Mr. 
Kellogg, and others, who engaged in the enterprise, were also Pres- 
byterians. At the time the land was bought and the College found- 
ed, every man who had subscribed money to aid in the work was, 
so far as I knew, a Presbyterian. I did not, at that time, know that 
there was even one Congregationalist among them all. I was one 
of the committee who purchased the lands. At Detroit, Mr. Thomas 
Simmons joined the rest of the committee, and traveled with us to 
Knox county. But not until long after that time did I know that 
he was a Congregationahst. It was well understood^ by all who 
Jcnew anything about it^ that this was a Presbyterian enterprise. It 
was so understood after the College was founded, and no other claim 
has ever been advanced until within the last few years. It was the 
design of all who founded Knox College, to build up an institution 
which should be open to the youth of our country, without regard 
to denominational relations of any kind. At the same time, it was 
their design to transmit the control of their Institution mainly to 
men who would represent their own sentiments as Presbyterians. It 
was expected fully that while various denominations might be repre- 
sented in the Board, yet the majority of Trustees would be men 
sympathizing, in ecclesiastical matters, with its founders. And 
therefore, for many years after the College was founded, a majority 
of its Trustees were Presbyterians. After Rev. Jonathan Blan ch- 
ard became President of the College, it became apparent that he 
intended, if possible, to wrest it from Presbyterians, and give it into 
the hands of Congregationalists. For efforts of this kind, and for 
other reasons, he was, as early as 1849, on the point of being re- 
moved from the Board. The matter was adjusted, however, in a 
manner which led us to believe that no more causes of complaints 
of this kind would be given by him. The present large number of 
Congregationalists in the Board has not come through the appoint- 
ment of so many of that denomination by the Board. Several of 
those who now are among the Congregational members of the Board, 



60 KNOX COLLEGE. 

were Presbyterians by profession, when they were elected as Trus- 
tees, and they were elected because they were Presbyterians. They 
have since become Congregationalists, and have given their influence 
and votes to wrest the College from the hands of those hy whom 
they ii^ere appointed. Against all such efforts I have, with other 
founders of the College, continually protested, and do protest. If 
Congregationalists had founded Knox College, I sliould insist that it 
ought to be theirs. But as it was founded and endowed by Presby- 
terians, it ought to he theirs. 

I have heard read with care, the pamphlet entitled, ' Rights of 
Congregationalists in Knox College,' published by order of the Con- 
gregational General Association of Illinois. From my own personal 
knowledge, I declare that publication to be false in all its essential 

l^^^'^^^- SiLYANUS FeRKIS. 

Galesburg, III., Dec. 10, 1859." 

The next letter is from Professor N. H. Losey, who was one of 
the founders of the College, and who has been in its Faculty from 
its organization. His eiforts have contributed largely to elevate the 
grade of scholarship in the College, and to make it, in that respect, 
truly an alma m^ater to its graduates. He was for eleven years the 
Treasurer, and for seventeen years the Secretary, of the College. 
No man is better versed in the early history of the College than he. 

LETTER OF PROF. K H. LOSEY. 

" I was born in the State of New York, and was a teacher in the 
Oneida Institute in that State, when Rev. G. W. Gale originated 
the Plan for founding Knox College. I was well acquainted with 
Mr. Gale at that time, and also with a large number of those who 
became Subscribers to his Plan. I was myself a decided Presbyte- 
rian then, as I had been many years before, and have been always 
since. All the Subscribers by whom the College was founded were, 
so far as I then knew, Presbyterians. I afterward learned that one 
of them, Mr. Simmons, was a Congregationalist. The whole enter- 
prise was well understood at that time to be exclusively Presbyte- 
rian. Their claim has never, to my knowledge, been questioned, 
nntil very recently. I have always opposed all measures which 
looked like an effbrt to transfer the control of the College to any 
other than Presbyterians. It has always been the desire of the 
founders, as our action clearly shows, to secure a fair representation 



TESTIMONY OF FOUNDEKS. 61 

of various denominations in the College Board. The recent efforts 
of Congregationalists to secure to themselves a majority of Trus- 
tees, and thus perj)etuate the management of the College to their 
own denomination, is in direct opposition to the well-hnown loishes 
of the founders^ and is justly characterized as an attempt at a gross 
usurpation. The present number of Congregational members in the 
Board is the result of a change of sentiment, on the part of several 
who were supposed to be Presbyterians in heart, as they were in 
profession, at the time they received their appointment. 

I w^as present at the organization of the First Presbyterian Church 
in Galesburg, in 1837. It was voted unanimously that the church 
should be fully Presbyterian. I was elected one of its Elders at the 
time, which office I held until 1845, when the ' Compromise ' was 
adopted. The Session administered the government of the Church, 
during all that time, as fully as in any Presbyterian Church in the 
world. The members of the Church often remained, after a prepara- 
tory lecture, to witness the examination of candidates for admission 
to the Church, and in some cases, especially when peculiar views 
were advanced by the candidate, respecting slavery, and other ques- 
tions of reform, they were asked whether they were satisfied with 
the sentiments expressed. But the church never, previous to the 
' Compromise,' voted upon the reception or dismission of members, or 
in any manner departed from the usages common in the Presbyte- 
rian Church. 

IsT. H. LosEY. 

December, 1859." 

The letter that follows is from Rev. Hiram H. Kellogg, a Presby- 
terian minister, well known in the State of New York. He was the 
first one who subscribed to Mr. Gale's Plan. He became the first 
President of the College in 1839, and remained in that office until 
1845, when he resigned. He has always cherished a deep interest 
in the College, and has linked with no little alarm upon the efforts 
of Congregationalists to secure for themselves its control. His letter 
was written before the removal of Mr. Blanchard from the Presi- 
dency, and had reference to that result. 

LETTER OF EX-PRESIDENT H. H. KELLOGG. 

"Marshall, Oneida Co., May 5, 1857. 
* * * As to ecclesiastical relations, you know I am not a 
strong sectarian. I am of conviction and choice, a moderate ISTew 



62 KNOX COLLEGE. 

School Presbyterian ; but I have no sympathy with denominational 
strife, and no desire for denominational aggrandizement. If I was 
a Congregationalist, I should be a moderate one, and if so, I think 
I should still be, as I no%o am, of opinion that Knox College should 
he under a leading Presbyterian influence. I would have the two 
denominations represented in its Boards of counsel and instruction. 
ITet I would have the Presbyterian a leading interest. My reason 
for this is not as a matter of choice, or elective affinity, but of simple 
justice and right. It icas so projected — so 'understood from the be- 
ginning. Its main parents, authors of its existence, were Presbyte- 
rian, and their whole action, including the plan for a Theological 
School, shows this. Mutatis mutandis, if the Institution, in these 
respects, had been as much Congregational as it has been Presby- 
terian, I should say as decidedly that its leading influences should 
continue to be Congregational. * * J" would have the President 
a Presbyterian, as a matter of principle. 

H. H. Kellogg." 

The reader has not forgotten the part taken by Mr. T. B. Jervis, 
as one of the Exploring Committee, in securing the present location 
for the College. Mr. Jervis was a Subscriber, and, soon after the 
College was founded, became a minister in the Presbyterian Church, 
in which connection he still remains. His letter, which follows, will 
show what were his expectations as to the denominational character 
of the College which he labored so diligently to establish. 

LETTER OF KEY. T. B. JERYIS. 

"Newport, New York, Aug. 10, 1858. 
* * * You will remember that I was appointed one, of a com- 
mittee of three, to explore the central part of Illinois, for the pur- 
pose of ascertaining the most suitable location of such an Institution. 
With regard to the Institution, I can onJJr say, that while it was not 
my supposition that it was to be of a sectarian character, I did think 
that it was to be placed under decidedly Presbyterian auspices. I 
knew that all the friends of the enterprise, with whom I was per- 
sonally acquainted, were members of the Presbyterian Church. 

T. B. Jervis." 

Mr. Thomas Gilbert was also a member of the Exploring Com- 
mittee, and in his reports to the Prudential Committee indicated so 



TESTIMONY OF FOUNDERS. 63 

nearly the present site of the College, that the Purchasing Commit- 
tee came immediately to Knoxville, five miles from Galesburg, in 
the full expectation of finding in the neighborhood, as they did, a 
suitable location. 

LETTER OF THOS. GILBERT. 

"I certify that I was one of the original Subscribers to a Plan for 
founding an institution of learning in the West, agreeably to a Plan 
which was drawn up and advocated by Rev. G. W. Gale ; and that 
I was appointed and served as one of an Exploring Committee, 
which was sent out to find a suitable location for the said institu- 
tion. The Plan of the enterprise was drawn by Mr. Gale. I always 
understood that it was to be strictly a Presbyterian Institution. The 
enterj^rise resulted in the establishment of Knox College. 

Knoxville, July 6, 1859." Thomas GILBERT. 

Benjamin P. Johnson, Esq., now residing at Albany, New York, 
is widely known in this country as the Secretary of the New York 
State Agricultural Society. He was a Subscriber to the Plan by 
which Knox College was built up, and aided by his counsels in 
securing the result. This is his testimony : 

LETTER OF B. P. JOHNSOK 

"Albany, August 11, 1858. 
I knew well the early history of the Galesburg efibrt. Knowing, 
as I did, the men engaged in the enterprise, I was not a little sur- 
prised at the assurance with which it has been put forth, that Con- 
gregationalists are the men who should have the control of this 
great work. Certainly in its inception they had little or nothing to 
do with it. It appears that the great object has been to avail them- 
selves of other men's labors to further their own, I fear, merely 
sectarian schemes. I trust, however, God in His providence has 
opened a way of deliverance, etc. * * jf ^ly \]£q should be 
spared, I hope to visit Galesburg, and witness what has been done 
by those godly men with whom I once took counsel, and whose suc- 
cess has ever been dear to me. -g p Jqjjnson " 

Jeremiah Holt, Esq., of Cleveland, Ohio, was a Subscriber, and 
thus writes to Rev. Mr. Gale : 



64 KNOX COLLEGE. 

LETTER OF J. HOLT. 

"Cleveland, Aug, 18, 1858. 
I was greatly interested in the enterprise whicli you originated in 
the State of New York, from which Knox College has resulted, and 
have deeply sympathized with those who have sought its prosperity, 
during its whole history. I was an Elder of the First Presbyterian 
Church of Watertown, New York, at the time when the meetings 
were held in reference to the Plan you proposed for the establish- 
ment of institutions at the West, and was the Secretary of the 
meeting at Whitesboro', on the 19th of August, 1835. Those who 
felt an interest in the matter and who subscribed to the fund icere 
members of the Presbyterian Church, so far as I knew. And whUe 
none of us contemplated a sectarian institution, it was understood 
that as you icere a Presbyterian, this would be the general character 
of the College. I shall hope and pray for its future prosperity with 
much of the feeling that I first cherished in its behalf. 

Jeremiah Holt." 

LETTER OF REY. J. FROST. 

Rev. John Frost, another Subscriber, who is not now living, was 
widely known for many years in Central New York, as an efficient 
and devoted Presbyterian minister. In a letter written by him to 
Mr. Gale, dated "Elmira, June 29, 1837," a year and a half after 
the College was founded, and a few days only after the famous 
"Exscinding Acts" of the majority of the General Assembly of the 
Presbyterian Church, he used this language : " I rejoice that you 
have the prospect of doing so much good in connection with your 
associates as may reasonably be expected from the Plan if carried 
out. As loe are likely to be cut off from most of the Colleges and 
Theological Seminaries which are controlled by Presbyterians, we 
must be awake to the establishment of neio ones,''"' etc. In other 
words, Mr. Frost rejoiced in the prospective success of Knox Col- 
lege, because it would be a "new one" in the place of those from 
which its founders had been driven, and which had always been 
" controlled by Presbyterians.'^'' He expected Knox College to sup- 
ply the place, in part, of those they had lost, and to be " controlled 
by Presbyterians," as they had been. 

Thomas G. Frost, Esq., a Trustee of the College, and a prominent 
lawyer, living in Galesburg, is a son of Rev. John Frost, and assures 



TESTIMONY OF FOTJITOERS. 65 

the writer that the sentiments of his father were correctly repre- 
sented in the language of the letter just quoted. He also stated in 
writing, before he removed to Galesburg, " that when Mr. Gale 
formed the Plan of founding a colony and establishing a College in 
Galesburg, Illinois, his father took a deep interest in the scheme, 
manifested at the time by contributing to its funds, and subsequently 
by constant and earnest countenance and support, until the day of 
his death. His anticipations of the results of the enterprise were of 
the most ardent and enthusiastic character. His hope rested not 
only upon the vast and enlightened Christian influence secured by 
the institution thus established, but also upon the tried Christian 
fidelity, experience and wisdom of the founder of the enterprise, 
and wMch^ under the smiles of Providence, he fondly trusted toould 
continue^ unimpaired by alienation, or distrust, to guide and control 
its destinies.''^ 

Rev. Phineas Camp, now in the Presbytery of Utica, a Subscri- 
ber, and a warm fiiend of the College enterprise, thus writes : 

LETTER OF REV. P. CAMP. 

" I hereby certify that I have known the Rev. G. W. Gale for 
many years. A year or two before he commenced operations to- 
ward founding a literary institution at the West he communicated 
his design and the plan to me. I was in favor of the plan, and 
subsequently put in funds to aid in its establishment. It was re- 
garded as an enterprise of Mr. Gale, originating wholly with him. 
Those who united loith him were chiefly of the Presbyterian denomi- 
nation^ and it loas considered a Presbyterian enterprise. Its founders 
and friends in this region have looked upon it with great interest, 
and I believe would exceedingly regret any effort to divert it from 
its original purpose and regard it as an act of injustice to its 
founders. Phineas Camp, 

Sept. 15, 1855. Minister in connection with the Presbytery of Uiicay 

Sidney Rice, Esq., and his sister, Miss Araminta P. Rice, were 
both Subscribers to the plan for founding Knox College. Mr. Rice 
thus writes in behalf of himself and also of his sister : 

LETTER OF S. RICE. 

" I was a Subscriber in 1835 to a plan drawn up by Rev. G. W. 
Gale, for establishing a College and other literary institutions in the 
5 



66 KNOX COLLEGE. 

West. That plan resulted in founding Knox College, Illinois. My 
sister, Miss A. P. Rice, was also a Subscriber to the same plan. We 
both took farm lands, in accordance with the plan, equal in value to 
the amount of our subscriptions. These lands we returned to the 
College when it was found that they would be of more value to it 
than the money. We loere Presbyterians, and were members of 
the First Presbyterian Church, Dr. Beman's, in Troy, N. Y., at the 
time the College was founded. The eoiterprise was understood by 
us to be exclusively one of Presbyterians. We did not know that 
Congregationalists had any part in the work of founding the Col- 
lege. It was the intention of those who engaged in the work, to 
found a College which should be liberal, and which should offer its 
advantages for education alike to all. But we never supposed that 
the College would be controlled by any other denomination of Chris- 
tians than the one to which the founders belonged. An attempt by 
any party whatever, to wrest the College from the control of Pres- 
byterians, would be regarded by us as in open conflict with the ex- 
pectation of those by whom it was founded. 

Sidney Rice. 
Cincinnati, Ohio, March 3, 1860." 

STATEMENT OF THOMAS SIMMONS. 

• Mr. Thomas Simmons, the Congregational Subscriber, in personal 
conversation with the writer of this, somewhat more than a year 
ago, admitted fully that all the founders of the College were Pres- 
hyterians except himself He justified the attemj)ts of Congrega- 
tionalists to secure the control of the College, on the ground that 
the Congregational denomination was more numerous in this part 
of Illinois, as he supposed, than the Presbyterian, and the strongest 
party ought to rule. This sort of logic may answer at a Congrega- 
tional church meeting, but it will hardly avail to settle questions in- 
volving the rights of founders of Colleges. The views of Mr. Sim- 
mons are also stated by his son-in-law, Mr. E. S. Hitchcock, an 
Elder in the Second Presbyterian Church in Galesburg, in the fol- 
lowing language : 

*' I am the son-in-law of Mr. Thomas Simmons, one of the found- 
ers of Knox College. Mr. Simmons has admitted, in conversations 
on the subject with me, that the College originated with Presbyteri- 
ans. During the present week, in reply to a question by me, with 
direct reference to this point, he stated distinctly that so far as he 



TESTIMONY OF FOUNDERS. 67 

knew, all the Suhscrihers^ by whom the College was founded, were 
Fresbyterians, except himself. 

Before I removed to Galesburg among its early settlers, I was 
well acquainted with the history of the enterprise for founding a 
College here, and with some of its founders, and I understood that 
it was a work undertaken by Presbyterians. I have never heard 
any other claim advanced, until within a few years. 

January 2, I860." E. S. HiTCHCOCK. 

The Kev. L. H. Loss was deeply interested in Mr, Gale's plan, 
although not a Subscriber, and aided in drafting the plan, while he 
was pastor of a Presbyterian church at New York Mills. As he is 
well known throughout this State and elsewhere, his testimony is 
here given, as follows : 

LETTER OF REV. L. H. LOSS. 

*' In reference to what I know of the origin and founding of Knox 
College, I have to say that I was acquainted with this enterprise 
from its commencement. In the summer of 1834, Rev. Geo. W. 
Gale, with whom I had been intimately acquainted for many years, 
called on me at my house at the New York Mills, while I was pastor 
of the Presbyterian church there, and laid before me a plan which 
he had conceived, of founding an institution of learning somewhere 
in the West. We had repeated conferences on the subject, and at 
his request, in accordance with his suggestions, I made a draft of the 
plan, which, after some modifications, was adopted, and is the Plan 
upon which the Galesburg Colony and Knox College, of Illinois, was 
founded. Although not a Subscriber, I was deeply interested in the 
success of the enterprise, and gave to it most cordially, all the aid I 
could. I was personally acquainted with most of the ministers who 
embarked in it. They were members, with me, of the Oneida (now 
Utica) Presbytery. I was also well acquainted with many of the 
Elders and other gentlemen who were the original Subscribers of 
the Company. I was present at the meeting of the Subscribers held 
in Whitesboro', N. Y, in January, 1836. At that meeting the com- 
mittees all reported — the College and town were named — the Trus- 
tees chosen, and the farming lands distributed. Up to this time, and 
as far as I know ^ for many years after., the Presbyterian paternity 
and character of the enterprise were undisputed and undoubted. 

L. H. Loss." 



bb KNOX COLLEGE. 

The reader must be fully satisfied by this time, that the Subscri- 
bers who founded Knox College were Presbyterians, and that they 
intended to transmit its control to Presbyterians. To multiply tes- 
timony of the same kind as the foregoing, would add nothing to the 
completeness of the proof We have here the testimony of the one 
Congregational Subscriber, as well as that of others. All state ex- 
actly the same thing concerning the denominational character of the 
men by whom the College was founded. 

Here then, it is settled by the founders of the College, that they 
intended to transmit the control of the College to Presbyterians ; 
and that the supremacy of Congregationalists in its control would 
be a usurpation, in direct opposition to the rights and wishes of those 
founders. And yet, during the lifetime of those founders, in total 
disregard of all their intentions, and in conflict with all their early 
acts, Mr. Blanchard and his friends had almost accomplished that 
usurpation ; and because the majority of the College Board, composed 
of men of four different denominations, and of others who are con- 
nected as members with none, would not suff'er them to consummate 
their designs, they have raised a great outcry, and thereby have 
greatly embittered a large part of the Congregational body against 
the College. But Truth will spread, and when the public come to 
understand that Presbyterians founded, and also endowed Knox 
College, they w^ill see that the war waged against it during* 
the last tw^o years, by certain Congregationalists, has scarcely its 
parallel in sectarian injustice and outrage. The Congregational 
body will condemn at last the great wrong which has been perpe- 
trated under its name. 

It ought here to be stated, that no one has ever pretended to 
claim, until recently, that the College was not founded by Presby- 
terians, and of right belonged to them. Plots enough have been 
carried on, for several years, to wrest it from them ; but only since 
the removal of Mr. Blanchard, and the consequent defeat of those 
plots, has any one had the boldness to assert that it was mainly 
founded and endowed by Congregationalists. Mr. Blanchard well 
knew it to be a Presbyterian College, when he became its President, 
and on that account felt it necessary to assure the Board, that in 
connecting himself with the Congregational body, he had no special 
zeal in that direction, which need alarm them. In the year 1844, 
the Board made application for aid from the Society for Collegiate 
and Theological Education at the West. Mr. Gale, who was 



TESTIMONY OF ME. ELANCHAED. . 69 

instructed to make this application, in a letter written at the time, to 
a leading Director of that Society, among other reasons why aid 
should be granted, stated particularly the evangelical character, and 
consequent religious importance of the College, in these words : 
" We are Presbyterians in connection with the Constitutional As- 
sembly. While we feel it a duty as Christians to cultivate friendly 
and kind relations with evangelical Christians of all denominations, 
and particularly with our Congregational brethren, with whom we 
are so closely allied in everything but church jiolity, we are by 
education and deliberate preference Presbyterians." 

The application for aid was not granted at that time, the Society 
having engaged in a strenuous effort to build up Illinois College, and 
also wishing to found a new College at Davenport, Iowa. In 1847, 
Mr. Blanchard, who was then President of the College, was directed 
to renew the application, which he did. He presented a written 
report of his efforts to the Board, in which he uses this language, 
which is certainly very remarkable, if the College Avas then under- 
stood by him to be Congregational. " Knowing," Mr. Blanchard 
says, " that there is, in many parts of the East, a great and growing 
dissatisfaction, that funds given by Eastern Congregationalists^ 
should be applied in the West to the promotion of other principles 
of church government than those of the donors^ I yet felt it my 
duty, being myself a Congregationalist, to inform those concerned, 
of my intention, in case Knox College was rejected by the College 
Society, to appeal to Eastern Congregation alists against the de- 
cision." Here Mr. Blanchard clearly states that any " funds given 
by Eastern Congregationalists " to Knox College, at that time, 
would have been given " to the promotion of other principles of 
church government than those of the donors." We have here his 
own written testimony that the College was not then a Congrega- 
tional institution. In the same report, Mr. Blanchard stated that 
" when our application was argued before the Board of the College 
Society, Dr. Bacon strongly insisted that it was necessary to take 
up Knox College, to prevent the appeal which would be made to the 
rising spirit of Congregationalism at the East." In other words, 
Dr. Bacon apprehended that this Presbyterian College, unless pro- 
tected by the sheltering wing of the College Society, might, through 
the appeal of its own President, become a prey to " the rising spirit 
of Congregationalism at the East." Happy would it have been for 
Knox College, had Mr. Blanchard been as effectually prevented. 



70 KNOX COLLEGE. 

since that time, fi'om making his appeal, not to secm^e aid for the 
College, but to arouse prejudice against it, to " the rising spirit of 
Congregationalism " at the West, 

THE COLLEGE BOARD. 

When the College was founded, in January, 1836, a temporary- 
Board of ten members was appointed, of whom, all but two were 
founders. Eight of the whole number were Presbyterians, and two 
were Congregationalists. During the year, Mr. Matthew Chambers, 
a Congregationalist, was added. In February, 1837, the Legislature 
of Illinois granted a Charter, in which the following eleven persons 
were named as the Corporate Board : 

Rev. John Waters, Presbyterian. 
" Geo. W. Gale, 

Nehemiah West, " Elder. 



Parnach Owen, 
R. H. Hurlburt, 
IST. H. Losey, 



Geo. W. Wright, Non-Professor, afterward Pres. Elder. 
John G. Sanborn, Episcopalian. 
Matthew Chambers, Congregationalist. 
Erastus Swift, " 

Thomas Simmons, " 

The two last named Consfregjationalists, before the Board was 



o 



organized, became members of the Presbyterian Church in Gales- 
burg. Mr. M. Chambers removed from Vermont to Knoxville, the 
town adjoining Galesburg, in 1836, and united with the Presbyterian 
Church there, of which he was a member %ohen he was appointed 
in the Charter. lie became a ruling Elder in that Church before the 
Board had organized, and continued to hold the office during the 
five years he remained in the Knoxville Church. He then removed 
to Galesburg, and again for many years was an Elder in the Presby- 
terian Church there. He now, however, chooses to regard all those 
professions, and solemn oaths as an ofiicer in the Presbyterian 
Church, as no true index to his real sentiments, and so he is here 
accounted as a Congregationalist. The persons enumerated in the 
above list as Presbyterians were all sincerely such then, and have 
continued to be such until now. 

Thus it will be seen the corporate Board consisted of eight men 
taken fi'om the Presbyterian Church and connection, and two from 
the Congregational. Seven of the number were m senthnent Pres- 
bvterians and three were Cons^reg^ationalists. 



THE COLLEGE BOARD. 



71 



The following list includes all the additions that have ever been 
made to the original corporate Board : 



In 1837, Wm. Holyoke, 



" Peter Butler, 
" Silvanus Ferris, 
1838, Rev. H. H. Kellogg, 



Presbyterian Elder, In Cincinnati and 

in Galesburg. 
Baptist. 
Presbyterian. 



1843, Hon. James Knox, 
1845, Rev. Aratus Kent, 
" Horatio Foot, 
" Flavel Bascom, Presbyterian. 
" Milton Kimball, 
Eli Farnham, 
James Bunce, 
James Bull, 
Rev. H. H. Kellogg, 



Not Ch. Member. 

Presbyterian. 

Congregationalist. 



Elder. 



President and ex 
officio Trustee. 
Resigned soon. 
Did not accept. 



Congregationalist. 
Not Ch. Member. 
Congregationalist. 
Presbyterian. 
Congregationalist. 



Res'd Presidency, 

elected Trus. 
Pres't and Trust. 



" " J. Blanchard, 
1848, Hon. James Knox, 

" C. S. Colton, 

«' S. F. Dolbear, 

" Levi Sanderson, 
1 850, Hon. O. H. Browning, Not Ch. Member. 

" Marcus B. Osborne, Presbyterian Elder. 

" Wm. E. Withrow, 

" Levi S. Stanley, " " 

" Rev. S. G. Wright, Congregationalist. 
1852, Wm. J. Phelps,^ " 

" Rev. W. E. Holyoke, 
1856, Caleb M. Pomroy, Baptist. 
1858, Thos. G. Frost, Presbyterian. 

" Rev. H. Curtis, D.D., " Pres't and Trust. 

In the above list, Mr. Eli Farnham is named as an Elder in a Pres- 
byterian Church, at the time he was elected a Trustee. He had 
been a member of a Presbyterian Church more than eight years 
before that election, and during several of those years had been an 
Elder, which office he continued to hold long after he became a 
Trustee of the College. He is now a Congregationalist, and claims 
that he was at that time also in sentiment a Congregationalist. Per- 
haps he was, but when men have been for years members of the 
Presbyterian Church, and have held office as Elders in that Church, 
and have been appointed as Trustees in the College while thus con- 
nected, and because they icere supposed to he^ what they professed to 
be — Presbyterians, they cannot reasonably ask to be allowed to 



72 KNOX COLLEGE. 

credit their election to the benefit of the Congregational body. Mr. 
Farnham was elected to the Board because he was supposed to be 
a Presbyterian. Yet, from the fact that all in the above list were 
m sentiTnent, as well as in profession, what they are there stated to 
have been, except Mr. Farnham, he will in what follows be reckoned 
among the Congregation alists. Thus that denomination is credited 
with all who have ever claimed to be in sympathy with it when 
elected to the Board, even although they professed to be Presby- 
terians, and were elected on account of their profession. 

The above list shows that twenty-eight persons, including the 
Presidents, have been elected to the Board since its organization 
under the charter. Of this number, fifteen were honest Presby- 
terians when elected, and eight were Congregationalists, including 
among them one Presbyterian Elder. The list shows that previous 
to the election of Mr. Blan chard, in 1845, a period of more than 
eight years, nine Presbyterians had been elected, and exactly two 
Congregationalists, one of whom was a Presbyterian Elder! The 
list show^s what changes were wrought in the Board by Mr. Blan- 
chard, after his election. In the corporate Board, it has been 
shown, were seven true Presbyterians, and three Congregationalists, 
including among them^ also, one who for years from that time was a 
Presbyterian Elder. Previous to the election of Mr. Blanchard as 
President, there had been appointed to the Board, including cor- 
porate members, sixteen Presbyterians, and five Congregationalists, 
two of whom professed to be Presbyterians. Including charter 
members, there have been thirty-nine Trustees, of whom twenty-two 
were sincere Presbyterians, and eleven were Congregationalists. 
Two of the Trustees were never members of any church, but both 
of them were when elected, as they have continued to be ever since, 
supporters of the Presbyterian Church. 

The reader thus sees that previous to the election of Mr. Blanch- 
ard to the Presidency of the College, the Board was almost wholly 
Presbyterian. Indeed, of the Congregationalists elected during 
that period only three were at the time of their election professedly 
Congregationalists. In the foregoing statements, that denomination 
has been credited with all the Presbyterian members and Elders, 
whom they have ever claimed as being, in personal preference, their 
own. 

It has so happened in the history of the Board, that only one 
of all the places filled by Congregationalists had ever been vacated. 



I 



THE COLLEGE BOAED. 73 

previous to the removal of Mr. Blanchard, while a large number of 
places filled by Presbyterians have been made vacant by the re- 
moval from the State or by the death of the incumbents. 
Notwithstanding this fact, however, the Congregational party in the 
Board would be a small minority at the present time, if it were 
composed of those only who were elected as Congregationalists. 
The present strength of that party has been caused by the fact that 
several Trustees who were by profession Presbyterians when elected, 
and who were elected to represent Presbyterian hiterests, have since 
become Congregationalists. Rev. Flavel Bascom had been for many 
years previous to his election, a prominent Presbyterian minister in 
this State. SCe was elected to the Board as a Presbyterian. He 
now leads the Congregational party in the Board. Mr. Eli Farn- 
ham was an Elder in the Presbyterian church when elected a 
Trustee of the College, and he loas elected because he professed to be 
a Presbyterian. He is now a Congregationalist. Other members, 
who were professed Presbyterians when elected, are now claimed 
as Congregationalists. They were elected as Presbyterians and not 
as Congregationalists. They have a right to change their denom- 
inational relations if they desire to do so. But they have no right 
to carry over with them to the Congregational body rights which 
were intrusted to them as Presbyterians. This they have done. 
They have taken advantage of their own change of relations to in- 
vest the Congregational body with rights in Knox College, which 
were never granted to that body by its founders, or by its Board of 
Trustees. And because the Board will not allow them to complete 
their purpose, which they had so nearly accomplished, they now 
labor through the General Association of Illinois, and through the 
Congregational Herald of Chicago, to injure the prosperity of the 
College. They complain that their rights in the College as Con- 
gregationalists have been invaded. To several of those who thus 
complain, the College never intrusted any rights as Congregation- 
alists. The rights now in their hands were committed to them as 
Presbyterians. Moreover, what rights have they lost? Mr. 
Blanchard is the only man of their number who has been removed. 
Had they a right to retain him as President of the College against 
the majority of the Board ? It is time the public understood that 
this outcry, about the loss of rights in the College by Congregation- 
alists, is wholly without foundation in facts. It would be well, also, 
not merely for Knox College, but for other Institutions and Societies 



74 KNOX COLLEGE. 

in our land, to have the question clearly settled, as early as possible, 
whether Congregationalists, who were once members of Presby- 
terian churches, intend to claim for their own denomination all 
rights and interests which were committed to them when they were 
Presbyterians. That they are justified in doing this, seems at pres- 
ent to be the doctrine indorsed by the General Association of Illinois. 
If that doctrine is to prevail in that body, it is time it was known, at 
least by the Presbyterian church. 



THE FIRST CHURCH IN GALESBURG. 



/ 



A church was organized by the Christian settlers of Galesburg 
the early part of 1837. That church was, as its own records state, 
"fully Presbyterian." From its organization until 1845, it was as 
entirely Presbyterian in all its polity as it is possible for any church 
to be. It was in connection with Presbytery, and its government 
was administered exclusively by its Session. This is asserted by 
all those now living, who were among its leading members at that 
time. It is clearly proved by its records. Professor Losey, who 
was one of its Elders from its organization until the " Compromise," 
in 1845, asserts that the church was during all that time wholly 
Presbyterian. The same thing is proved by the " Compromise," 
which granted to the church, as a concession to Congregationalists, 
the privilege of voting with the Session upon the reception of mem- 
bers and, in certain cases, of trying members accused of wrong 
doing. The fact that these privileges were granted as a " Compro- 
mise" shows that they were not previously held as an original 
right. 

That it was Presbyterian is evident from the fact shown in its 
own records, that more than two-thirds of those who first united 
with the church, and whose vote determined its polity, were Pres- 
byterians. The " Rights of Congregationalists " asserts that from 
a very early date the church records^ whose language it professes to 
quote, state that members were ahoays received by " vote of the 
church and session." How far from correct the assertion is will ap- 
pear from the following certificate of Mr. Norman Churchill, the pre- 
sent clerk of the church and session : " I certify that until the time of 
the Compromise in 1845, the church records do not state in a single 
instance that members were received into the church by * vote of 
the church and session.' — N. Chukchill." The writer of this 



THE FIKST CHUKOH IN GALESBTJEG. Y5 

knows from a careful examination of the records of that church 
that there is no evidence in them of any practice not strictly Pres- 
byterian before the adoption of the Compromise. The recent 
attempt to prove that from the beginning the Church was semi-Con- 
gregational is contradicted by its own records — by its early mem- 
bers — and by the very terms of the Compromise. When that 
Church was organized there was not a Congregational Church within 
fifty miles of Galesburg, nor a Congregational Association in all 
this region of Illinois ; while at the same time, Presbyterian Churches 
were scattered over the whole region, and the Church was formed 
by a Committee of Schuyler Presbytery, within whose bounds the 
colony had settled. Only a little more than two years ago Mr. 
Blanchard published a letter in the Galesburg Newspaper in which 
he confirms the above statements. In that letter he says : " You 
remember when the First Church in Galesburg and when Churches 
in Peoria, Farmington, Canton, Virgil, Henderson, Lafayette and 
Victoria, were all JSTew School Presbyterian Churches, They have 
changed \\\Q\Y polity without even a split. There are now no New 
School Presbyterian Churches in either of the above places except 
in this city." The world grows Avise with rapid strides ! Two 
years ago Mr. Blanchard was certain that all here could " remem- 
ber when the First Church in Galesburg was a New School Presby- 
terian Church" — and that it had become Congregational by a change 
from its original polity ! Within these two short years, however, 
the whole Congregational Association of this State, including Mr. 
Blanchard, have discovered that this Church was never a New 
School Presbyterian Church in its polity. 

The church adopted its Compromise, inl845, a few weeks before Mr. 
Blanchard became President of the College. They were led to do this 
through the efibrts of Rev. L. H. Parker, a Congregationalist, who 
acknowledged at the time, that the " Compromise " was a magnani- 
mous sacrifice on the part of the church to its Congregational members. 
It was a sacrifice in the largest sense, for the advantage then secured 
by Congregation alists was used as a means of securing still greater 
advantages, until at last the Church has become wholly Congrega- 
tional. The change, however, was not secured from an original 
preference on the part of the majority of its members for the Con- 
gregational polity, but from the notion that all the sins of American 
Slavery would be charged upon that particular Church, if they did 
not " come out " and •' separate " themselves from the Presbyte- 



Y6 KNOX COLLEGE. 

rian General Assembly. In 1851, the Church petitioned the whole 
Presbytery with which they were connected to separate from the 
Assembly solely on account of Slavery. In 1853, they resolved to 
send no more delegates to Presbytery until that body would comply 
with their former request. In 1855 they voted themselves out of all 
connection with the Presbytery, because their former petition had 
not been granted, and for no other reason. In 1856 they dropped 
the word Presbyterian from their name. Their present position 
and polity is shown in the following language of the printed Manual 
of the Church published about two years ago: ''^ Its Church polity 
is that of independence. All power resides within the Church. It 
recognizes no right of appeal, by any of its members, from itself to 
any ecclesiastical body or bodies." This is its present polity. In 
the light of this declaration of the Church, consider the following 
facts : The Presb3^terian founders of the College donated building 
lots to the " Presbyterian Society of Galesburg." This Church 
received those lots, being then the " Presbyterian Church of Gales- 
burg." They have now changed their name and call themselves 
the " First Church of Christ in Galesburg ;" and they have separat- 
ed entirely from the Presbyterian body in this country — have 
changed their polity radically — and declare their " Church polity 
to be that of independence." Yet they retain possession of the 
property given to the " Presbyterian Society," and they do it through 
the following miserable fiction : They call themselves a " Congre- 
gational Church" — independent in polity, by the name of "The 
First Church of Christ " and " The First Presbyterian Society." 
Henceforth there will be needed a new chapter in Ecclesiastical 
History, showing the rationale of a single body constituting at once 
both a Congregational Church and a Presbyterian Society ! The 
" developement " of that Church into its present position is mainly 
due to Mr. Blanchard. The early records of the Church and the 
" Compromise " are here published, that all may judge for themselves, 
whether or not the Church first established here was " fully Pres- 
byterian." 

CHURCH RECORDS. 

^^■^ "February 15, 1837. 

The professors of religion in Galesburg met agreeably to ap- 
pointment, at the School House in Henderson Grove, for the purpose 
of conferring on the subject of forming a Church in this place. The 
meeting was opened with prayer. Ministers present : Rev. John 



CnrKCH KECOEDS. 77 

Waters, who presided, and Rev. Geo. W. Gale, both from the Pres- 
bytery of Oneida, New York. 

" After free conversation and prayer, it was Resolved unanimously 
that it is expedient, as soon as practicable, to form a Church in this 
place. 2d, It was Resolved^ that it is expedient, for the sake of be- 
coming better acquainted with each other's Christian character, to 
have each one give an account of the reason of his hope — those who 
present letters, as well as those who design for the first time to make 
a profession of religion. The meeting was interesting and harmoni- 
ous. Adjourned, to meet in the same place on Friday of the present 
week. Closed with prayer." 

(2.) 

"February 17, 1837. 

The congregation met agreeably to adjournment, and was opened 
with prayer. Members present as at previous meeting. Thirty-one 
persons presented letters from different churches in New York and 
New England, and were examined agreeably to the resolution on 
experimental religion. The meeting was deeply solemn and inter- 
esting. Closed with prayer." 

(3.) 

"February 21, (Evening). 

Met for the purpose of continuing the business of the former 
meeting, which was spent, as were several other evenings, in receiv- 
ing letters and hearing the Christian experience of such, and of 
examining those who desired for the first time to connect themselves 
with the Church." 

" Saturday, Ferruary 25. 

Met again at the School House. Meeting opened with prayer. 
Present: Rev. J. Waters, who presided. Rev. Geo. W. Gale, and 
Rev. Mr. Noel, of the Presbytery of Schuyler, 111., who had been 
appointed by his Presbytery to aid in the formation of a Church in 
this place. The examination of candidates for Church fellowship 
was continued and finished, when addresses were made by the min- 
istering brethren, and a Conifession of Faith and Covenant presented 
for consideration. After explanations and remarks in regard to the 
Confession of Faith and Covenant, the same was unanimously ap- 
proved. It was resolved that the Lord's Supper be administered 
on the ensuing Sabbath, and all who had presented letters and been 
examined with a view to their making a profession of religion, be 
received and required publicly to give their assent to the Confession 
of Faith and Covenant. Closed with prayer." 

(4.) 

" Sabbath, February 26. 

It being inconvenient for the Rev. Mr. Noel to be present, the 
Rev. Geo. W. Gale preached in the morning. The afternoon was 
occupied in adopting the Confession of Faith and Covenant, and in 



78 KNOX COLLEGE. 

the administration of baptism and the Lord's Snpper." (Here follow 
some remarks about the solemnity of the occasion.) " Sixty-fom- 
imited with the Church by letter, and eighteen on confession — 
making eighty -two in all that united on this occasion." 

(5.) 

" Wednesday, April 5, 183Y. 

The Church members met at the School House agreeably to 
appointment, and the meeting was opened with prayer. Present : 
Rev. John Waters and Geo. W. Gale. After remarks by the minis- 
tering brethren present, and prayer, it loas Resolved unanimously 
that it is expedient to organize the Church fully as Presbyterian, 
and to choose three Elders and two Deacons at the present time. 
The following persons were then chosen Elders and Deacons by bal- 
lot : Nehemiah West, Nehemiah H. Losey, and John Kendall, El- 
ders ; and Thomas Simmons, and Abel Goodell, Deacons. Closed 
with prayer." 

(6.) 

" Sabbath, April 9, 1837. 

The above mentioned officers, viz: N. H. Losey and John Ken- 
dall were ordained to the office of Ruling Elders^ and with N. West, 
who had been ordained previously, were installed in office; and Abel 
Goodell, who was ordained as Deacon, and Thomas Simmons, who 
had before been ordained, were also installed in office. 

" A Sermon was preached on the occasion, and the questions put 
to the candidates and Church by Rev. Geo. W. Gale, and the prayer 
offered by the Rev. John Waters. The Church was then declared 
organized by the name of the ' Peesbytekian Chuech of Gales- 
burg.'" 

'-^Session met after the congregation was dismissed, and designated 
John Kendall as their delegate to the Presbytery of Schuyler, with 
the request that this Church be taken under the care of that 
Presbytery." 

"April 25, IBS'?. 

Session met. Rev. Geo. W. Gale reported that he and John 
Kendall had attended a meeting of the Schuyler Presbytery, and 
that this Church was received under its care." (Members received.) 

COMPROMISE. 

" At a meeting of the Presbyterian Church of Galesburg, held at 
the Academy, June 25, 1845, called for the purpose of uniting upon 
a Plan of Union, to meet the preferences of those in the Church 
who were partial to the Congregational as well as the Presbyterian 
form of government. Motion made by Mr. C. S. Colton, that the 
Plan of Union adopted by the General Assembly in 1801, be the 
basis of a Plan to be adopted by this Church. A Plan was then 
presented as follows : 



THE PKESIDENCT. 79 

1st. That no member shall hereafter be received into this Church 
except at a Church meeting, when every member may have an 
equal voice in the case. 

[2nd and 3rd articles relate to alternation in office of Elders and 
Deacons.] 

4th. That when any member shall come under censure of the 
Church, such member may elect whether to be tried by the Session, 
or by the adult members of the whole Church, and have the same 
right of appeal as granted by the Presbyterian and Congregational 
Churches in their respective bodies. 

5th. That the Church may be represented in Association and 
Presbytery." 

These articles were adopted July 5th, 1845. 

" I hereby certify that I have for many years kept the records of 
the Church and Session of the ' First Church of Christ,' formerly 
the * First Presbyterian Church ' in Galesburg ; and that the fore- 
going are true copies of the records, embracing the minutes of all 
the meetings held before and up to the complete organization of the 
Church. I further certify, that until the time of the ' Compromise,' 
in 1845, of which the above is a true copy, the Church records do 
not state in a single instance that members were received into the 
Church by ' vote of the Church and Session.' 

N. Chuechill, 

Dec. 31st, 1859. CRerk of Church and Sessicm.'''' 

THE PRESIDENCY. 

The causes which secured the present strength of the Congre- 
gational party in the Board have been spoken of already. By death, 
and by removals from the State, and by a change in denominational 
relations, the Board, which consists of twenty-five members, was 
during a few years preceding the removal of Mr. Blanchard, divided 
in respect to Church connections as follows: Twelve were Con- 
gregationalists, nine were Presbyterians, one was an Episcopalian, 
one was a Baptist, and two were not members of any church. The 
Congregationalists thus needed only one more member to constitute 
them a majority of the whole Board. They had in fact been an 
acting majority for three or four successive years preceding 1857, 
owing to the absence of other members. This had encouraged 
them to hope that soon the entire control of the College would be 
secured by their party. Mr. Blanchard was especially desirous of 
securing this result, because he well knew that he was so objection- 
able to the majority of the Board, that whenever they should all 
meet, he would be requested to resign. 

Many serious objections existed against him, as President of the 



80 EN-OX COLLEGE. 

College. Some of those who have been loudest in their denunciation 
of the members of the Board who removed him from office, are known 
to have expressed freely, before that act, the opinion that his peculiar 
characteristics as a man, and the strong prejudices against him, 
which were wide-spread through the State, rendered him unfit to 
be at the head of the College. Even Rev. Dr. Beecher had ex- 
pressed such an opinion. It was a fact presented at the meeting of 
the Board, when Mr. Blanchard was requested to resign, that during 
the previous five or six years, the College had made no advance in 
its average number of students, and that, too, when the population 
of this region of the State had doubled, and in Galesburg, had more 
than quadrupled during that time. Large numbers of the students, 
who entered the lower classes, left before they reached the 
senior year of studies. While these facts were not all charo-ed 
against the President, it was believed that they were in part attrib- 
utable to him. His long continued hostility to some of the older 
members of the Board, and in particular to the founders of the 
College, were gi-ave objections to him as President. Mr. Blanchard 
had long been aware of the feelings of the actual majority of the 
Board toward him and had anticipated his removal whenever there 
should be a full meeting. That time occurred at the Annual Meet- 
ing of the Board in June, 1857. The matter was introduced by the 
following resolution: ^^ Resolved, That in the opinion of this Board 
the dissention and want of confidence, existing between President 
Blanchard and Professor Gale, are exerting a malign influence upon 
the interests of the College, and that the prosperity and efficiency 
of the institution require that their connection with it should be 
dissolved, and their places supplied by other persons : Therefore be 
it further Resolved, That President Blanchard and Professor Gale 
be, and they hereby are, respectfully requested to resign their places 
in the Faculty of Knox College." These resolutions were intro- 
duced in the morning, and were freely discussed through the whole 
day. President Blanchard participating in the discussion, and voting 
upon every question connected with the resolutions, until the final 
vote by which they were passed. As soon as the resolutions were 
passed, Mr. Blanchard and Professor Gale resigned. By this act 
Mr. Blanchard ceased to be a member of the Board. On the fol- 
lowing morning, when one of the Trustees, who had voted in favor 
of the resolutions, was compelled to be absent from the meeting, 
one of the friends of Mr. Blanchard brought forward a resolution to 



THE PEESIDENCY. 81 

reinstate him for one year as President of the College. This was 
lost, some of Mr. Blanchard's party uniting with the others in voting 
against it. A motion was then made and carried appointing three 
Trustees " a Committee of Correspondence, with a view to supply 
the Presidency and Professorship just made vacant." The Chair- 
man of this Committee was taken from among the supporters of 
Mr. Blanchard. The Board adjourned to meet again on the second 
Thursday of August following, at which time they met and received 
the Reports of the above Committee. The majority of the Com- 
mittee, who represented those members in the Board by whose 
united action Mr. Blanchard had been removed, presented the fol- 
lowing Report : 

" The undersigned, a majority of the Committee appointed to 
correspond with suitable persons to fill the vacancies occasioned by 
the resignation of President Blanchard and Professor Gale, hereby 
beg leave to report, that we have had, through one of the Commit- 
tee, correspondence with several distinguished scholars of the East, 
any one of whom, in the estimation of the Committee, might be 
procured. But as a positive answer could not of course be expected, 
we recommend a series of names, in the order hereto appended, for 
the Presidency of Knox College : 

Rev. Asa D. Smith. 

Prof (D. Howe) Allen, Lane Seminary. 

Rev. Albert Barnes, Philadelphia. 

Prof J. B. Condit, Auburn Seminary. 

Rev. M. L. R. P. Thompson, Buffalo. 
And we also hereby recommend as the successor of Rev. G. W. 
Gale, Rev. Jno. W. Bailey. 

W. E. WiTHEOW, 

G. W. Gale." 

Rev. F. Bascom, Chairman of this Committee, who is the ac- 
knowledged leader of the Congregational party in the Board, pre 
sented a minority report as follows : 

" The minority of the Committee would respectfully recommend 
the appointment of Rev. J. Blanchard as President, and Rev. J. 
W. Bailey as Professor, to fill the existing vacancies. The recom- 
mendation of Mr. Bailey is based upon the expectation of Mr. 
Blanchard's restoration. If the Board refuse to re-elect Mr. Blan- 
chard, then it is recommended that the vacant Professorship be 
filled only temporarily." 

At the meeting of the Board when these resolutions were pre- 
sented, one of the members, who had voted in favor of the resigna- 
tion of Mr. Blanchard, was absent, confined on a sick-bed at Pepin, 
6 



82 ' KNOX COLLEGE. 

"Wisconsin. Another Presbyterian member, who had acquiesced 
in the removal of Mr. Blanchard, had been induced afterward to 
favor his restoration at this meeting, merely however as a conciliatory 
measure, and only on the express condition that Mr. Blanchard 
should resign again of his own accord at the close of the year. 
From these causes, the party who had removed Mr. Blanchard, and 
who believed that only embarrassment and mischief would result 
from his temporary restoration, and who were therefore determined 
if possible to appoint a new President, found themselves in an acci- 
dental minority of one, at this meeting. 

The two Reports of the Committee were accepted, after which 
the "Board adjourned until three o'clock P. M., to hold an informal 
meeting, with a view of uniting in some definite action." The 
members of the Board immediately assembled in this informal meet- 
ing, and the friends of Mr. Blanchard were then asked to select, 
from the list of names presented in the majority report, the name of 
any one who would be most acceptable to them as President, in 
order that he might be elected by a unanimous vote. They refused 
to make such a selection, but expressed their full determination to 
reinstate Mr. Blanchard. The Faculty of the College, at that time, 
was composed of four Congregationalists, and only one Presbyte- 
rian. It was manifestly just, therefore, that a Presbyterian should 
be appointed to the Professorship made vacant by the resignation 
of Mr. Gale, and which had always been filled by a Presbyterian. 
Yet, as a measure of peace, at this meeting, the Presbyterian party 
proposed to yield the Professorship to the Congregationalists, pro- 
vided they would unite in electing to the Presidency any one of the 
gentlemen named in the Majority Report, and provided also, they 
would present some unobjectionable name for the Professorship. 
This proposition was presented in writing by the Hon. O. H. Brown- 
ing, in these words : ^'-Resolved, that when we re-assemble as a 
Board of Trustees, we will proceed to elect Dr. A. D. Smith, of 
New York, or Professor Allen, of Lane Seminary, President of 
Knox College ; and will, at the same time, proceed to elect any 
qualified and unobjectionable gentleman of the Congregational 
Church, who may be named by the Congregational members of this 
Board, to the Professorship of Moral Philosophy and Belles 
Lettres." 

They were assured at the same time, that they would not be re- 
stricted to the two names contained in the resolution, but might 



THE PBESIDENCY. 83 

select from the whole number presented in the majority report. 
This proposition was rejected at once hy the Qongregationalists^ who 
insisted upon Mr. Blanchard as President. Before the vote was 
taken upon the resolution, one of their number stated, that if the 
proposition should be accepted, he should present the name of Rev. 
Charles Beecher, for the vacant Professorship. To this it was re- 
plied, that it was well known that Mr. Beecher was very objection- 
able to a majority of the whole Board — that his name had once 
already been before the Board at a regular meeting, and had been 
rejected — that he could not be the only man in the Congregational 
Church, who was qualified for the Professorship — and that if they 
would present only two names for the place, one of them would, 
without any objection, be accepted and elected. To this offer no 
response was made. A motion was then made by a Congregational 
member, that Mr. Browning's resolution 'be laid upon the table^ which 
was carried, by the unanimous vote of all the supporters of Mr. 
Blanchard. 

Rev. F. Bascom then moved that the informal meeting be ad- 
journed, and that they re-assemble in the regular place of meeting, 
and then, in accordance with the recommendation of his minority 
report, proceed to elect Mr. Blanchard and Mr. Bailey. This motion 
was carried by the united vote of those who had rejected the liberal 
resolution presented by Mr. Browning. Thus the informal meeting 
was adjourned. 

There remained to the party who had removed Mr. Blanchard 
only this simple alternative, — either to go into the regular meeting, 
and thus allow the Congregationalists who were then an accidental 
majority, to force Mr. Blanchard upon the College again, or else to 
remain away from the meeting, and thereby deprive the other party 
of a quorum, and thus save the College from what they believed 
would be a great calamity. They did not hesitate to adopt the lat- 
ter course, believing that their action would be justified by all good 
men who knew the facts in the case. The other party met, but 
were without a quorum. They, however, recommended to the Ex- 
ecutive Committee of the Board, the appointment of Mr. Blanchard 
and Mr. Bailey to the vacancies during the coming year, and then 
adjourned. The Executive Committee, composed of five Trustees, 
made the appointments recommended ; and thus Mr. Blanchard, 
after having been once removed and again rejected by the Board, 
became the acting President of the College for the next collegiate 
year. 



84 KNOX COLLEGE. 

Soon after this meeting of the Board in August, letters were re- 
ceived from Rev. A. D. Smith, D. D., in which he stated that it 
would not be possible for him, with his present relations and duties, 
to allow his name to be brought before the Board for election to the 
Presidency of the College. 

The previous Committee of Correspondence, and other gentle- 
men interested in securing a suitable President, then pressed the 
matter upon the Pev. Dr. Thompson, of Buffalo, who was one of 
the gentlemen named in the report of the majority, presented at the 
late meeting of the Board. He was earnestly entreated not to reject 
the matter hastily, but to give to it a careful consideration. This he 
consented to do. Efforts were then made to persuade the friends of 
Mr. Blanchard to unite in electing Dr. Thompson. His well-known 
Christian courtesy aod urbanity — his attainments as a scholar — and 
his eminence as a pulpit orator, it was thought, must commend him, 
even to the most A^olent partizan, as one eminently qualified for the 
Presidency. In the hope that all parties would unite in electing 
him, a special meeting was called by the acting President of the 
Board, to be held on the 15th day of October, 1857. It was well 
understood by the Congregationalists that the Presbyterians of the 
Board intended to bring forward the name of Dr. Thompson. When 
the day for the meeting arrived, every member of the Board was in 
Galesburg, and accordingly, the supporters of Mr. Blanchard were 
no longer in the majority, as they had been at the last meeting. 
Tliey therefore resolved to remain away from the appointed place 
of meeting. The other members of the Board met at the appointed 
time and place, and remained in session during the whole day, which 
time was also spent by the Congregationalists, in a private caucus. 
The only reason for their refusal to come into the meeting, and unite 
in electing Dr. Thompson, was that he was a Presbyterian. They 
had, after the last meeting, despaired of electing Mr. Blanchard, 
and at this time, they had no candidate of their own to present. 
They were governed merely by their sectarian prejudices, which 
made them hostile to any man, however eminent, who did not be- 
long to their own Congregational body. 

Just before the close of the day, they sent into the meeting a 
notice that they would all come in, on condition that no election 
should then be held for President, and no other business transacted 
except to appoint a new committe to report the names of candidates 
for the Presidency at a future meeting. Although it was believed 



THE PRESIDENCY. 85 

that this proposal was made for no other reason than to prevent an 
election at that time, and while it was certain that no more unob- 
jeclionable name than that of Dr. Thompson, could ever be pre- 
sented, yet so anxious were the majority of the Board to secure 
a full vote for the President, whoever he might be, that they ac- 
cepted the proposal. 

The full Board then assembled, when " on motion of O. H. Brown- 
ing, the following resolution was passed: Resolved, Tuat John G. 
Sanborn, Esq., Rev. S. G. Wright, and Wm. E. Withrow, Esq., be 
appointed a committee to select and recommend to the Board a suit- 
able man for the Presidency of Knox College, and that they report 
to the Board at a meeting hereafter to be called.*' 

That next meeting was held on the 30th day of April, 1858, at 
which all the Trustees were present. The majority of the com- 
mittee appointed at the last meeting presented a report, recommend- 
ing "Rev. Harvey Curtis, D. D., of Chicago, as a suitable person 
to be elected to the Presidency of Knox College." A minority 
report was presented by Rev. S. G. Wright, a Congregationalist. 
"Mr. Browning moved that both reports be accepted, and that we 
proceed to the election of President." The Congregationalists, who 
constituted a party by themselves, in opposition to all other denomi- 
nations and parties in the Board, then began a series of systematic 
efforts, by various motions, to delay, and if possible to hinder an 
election. They then for the first time professed a willingness to 
unite in electing Rev. A. D. Smith, D. D. But they were reminded 
that Dr. Smith's name had once been urged upon them, and that^ 
too, when they were in a majority, and that they had deliberately 
voted to lay upon the table the proposition to elect him — and further, 
that they knew perfectly well, that since that time. Dr. Smith had 
positively refused to allow his name to be presented as a candidate 
for the vacant Presidency. They then proposed Rev. Dr. Thomp- 
son. But again they were reminded of the fact, that only a few 
months before, the Board had been called together, in a special 
meeting, for the express purpose of electing Dr. Thompson, and 
that they, in order to prevent his election, had faction sly absented 
themselves from that meeting, until they had extorted a pledge 
from the other members of the Board, that they would not elect 
him at that time. They were reminded also that Dr. Thompson had 
refused, since then, to be a candidate for the office. 

Becoming well satisfied, after a large portion of one day had been 



86 KNOX COLLEGE. 

spent in this manner, that the Congregational members were fully 
resolved not to vote for any man as President who was a Presby- 
terian, unless he icere one who had already assured them he would 
not accept if elected — and that their only object in desiring a Con- 
gregationalist as President, was that they, as Congregationalists, 
might control the Board and the College — and that no good could 
result from any longer delay, the majority of the Board proceeded 
to elect Rev. Harvey Curtis, D. D., as President. Every Congre- 
gationalist voted against him. All the other members of the Board, 
consisting of representatives of four different denominations, and of 
two who had no church relations, voted for him. Yet these same 
Congregationalists, who rejected successively, Doctors Smith, and 
Thompson, and Allen, and Barnes, and Condit, solely because they 
were Presbyterians, have not, to this day, ceased their outcry 
against that majority, whom they denounce before the public as 
*' intensely sectarian ! " 

Let the foregoing history of the action of both parties in the 
Board, taken from the College records, show which party was 
guilty of "intense sectarianism." 

The College Board is at present divided as follows : Eleven 
Congregationalists, ten Presbyterians, one Episcopalian, one Bap- 
tist, and two ISTon-professors. The College Faculty consists of 
seven Professors and one Tutor, of which number, three are 
Presbyterians and five are Congregationalists. These Congrega- 
tionalists in the Faculty, have all been appointed by the unanimous 
votes of all the Presbyterian party in the Board, and they have the 
full confidence and support of that party. The question was never 
raised, in appointing them, to what denomination they belonged. 
They were appointed solely because qualified for their position. 
Since the removal of Mr. Blanchard, the Presbyterians in the Board 
have created an Assistant-Professorship, and have filled it by a 
Congregationalist, nominated by themselves. These facts show 
that the majority of the Board have no sectarian plan to accomplish. 
How can a party, composed of so many elements, in which four 
difierent denominations are represented, be called sectarian? The 
word can apply only to that party, which consists wholly of men 
of one denomination, and who all act in concert to gain a denomi- 
national end. There is one such party in the Board of Knox 
College. The end sought for is apparent. If they are not content 
with a larger number of Trustees than any other denomination. 



FACTS ESTABLISHED. 87 

and with more thanoiie-half of the College Faculty, what would sat- 
isfy them ? They profess to desire only a fair representation in the 
administration of the College. They have now the lion's share. 
To ask more for themselves than they now have, is simply to ask 
for all power in the College. Whether they ought to have that, 
let the foregoing facts determine. 

The public are now in possession of the records and various 
documents belonging to the College, which will enable all to judge 
of the questions by whom it was founded and endowed, and to 
whom it of right belongs. They have the testimony of the men 
who founded the College on these very points. From the foregoing 
statements, the following facts among others, are fully established : 

1. The Plan of the College originated with Mr. Gale. 

2. The College was- founded by him and the Subscribers to his 
Plan. 

3. They did this as Subscribers to that Plan, and not in any other 
relation. 

4. They paid, in money, to accomplish their Plan, more than the 
whole sum at first subscribed by them. 

5. The founders of the College endowed it with property which 
has been worth to it already, almost five hundred and fifty thousand 
dollars. 

6. Less than one-thirtieth of the money, which bought the land, 
which has so enriched the College, came from Congregationalists ; 
all the rest came from Presbyterians. 

7. The College has received since it was founded, donations 
amounting in round numbers to $46,000. Less than one-fourth of 
this amount was donated by Congregationalists; all the rest by 
Presbyterians. 

8. The founders of the College, thirty-four in number, were all 
Presbyterians except one, who was a Congregation alist. 

9. Of these founders, a large number have declared in writing 
that they intended to transmit the control of the College to 
Presbyterians. 

10. In fact, the College was during many years governed almost 
wholly by Presbyterians, and an overwhelming majority of all its 
Trustees have been chosen from that denomination. 

11. The present number of Congregationalists in the Board is the 
result in part of a change in denominational relations of some who 
were Presbyterians when elected Trustees. So many Congrega- 



88 KNOX COLLEGE. 

tionalists as are now in it, were never appointed, as such, by the 
Board. 

12. Congregationalists have been divested of no rights whatever 
in the College, and their dissatisfaction with their present power is 
proof that they desh*e the entire supremacy. 

13. The whole course of the majority of the Board in appointing 
a successor to Mr. Blanchard was wise, and liberal, and forbearing. 
They proposed the very man. Rev. A. D. Smith, D. D., whom the 
Congregationalists now profess to have desired as President of the 
College ; and their proposal to elect him was laid upon the table by 
Congregational votes. 

14. The appointments made by the Board to the College Faculty, 
indicate fully that no sectarian or narrow policy governs the major- 
ity. That majority is composed of men who are members or 
supporters of New School and Old School Presbyterian, Episcopa- 
lian, and Baptist churches. The elements of which the party is 
composed show that they can never be governed by any mere j^re- 
judice for a sect. They have been governed by their knowledge of 
what was right, in view of the fact that the College was founded and 
endowed by Presbyterians. They intend to be governed by that 
fact, hereafter, in all their action as a Board. 

*' RIGHTS OF CONGREGATIONALISTS IN KNOX 
COLLEGE." 

This is the title of a Report presented at the annual meeting of 
the Congregational General Association of Illinois, held in Bloom- 
ington, in May last, and which was adoj^ted itnanimously by that 
body, and ordered to be printed and distributed. The Report was 
presented by the following seven gentlemen, who had been appointed 
the year before : Rev. W. W. Patton, C. G. Hammond, Esq., Hon. 
Owen Lovejoy, Rev. Wm. Carter, Rev. S. H. Emery, Willard Keyes, 
Esq., and Rev. J. Emerson. The Report was professedly occasioned 
by the action of the Presbytery of Peoria and Knox, at their meet- 
ing in September, 1857, when the controversy respecting Knox 
College was raging in its greatest violence, and when Dr. Edward 
Beecher, in particular, had been so far overcome by excited feeling 
as to forget both the courtesies and proper province of public con- 
troversy, and was using the press. East and West, and the Congre- 
gational pulpits of the principal cities in this State, in an ungenerous 



89 

and wholly unprovoked onset upon the character of those members 
of the College Board by whom Mr. Blanchard had been removed, and 
f all their Presbyterian supporters. In their action, the Presbytery 
stated that they had " incontestable evidence of the following facts, 
viz : That the idea of founding Knox College originated among 
Presbyterians ; that it was successfully carried into execution by 
them ; that almost the whole amount of property, by means of which 
the College has been carried on successfully for twenty years, and 
which now constitutes its large endowment, was given by them; 
that it was, for more than ten years after its foundation, under their 
entire control ; and that its founders desired and expected that the 
Presbyterian body should have a larger share in the control of the 
Institution than any other body." 

The Presbytery also took action respecting the assaults of Rev. 
Dr. Beecher upon their members, which action will be given in its 
proper place hereafter. 

To inquire whether these statements of the Presbytery were true 
or not, and whether their action concerning Dr. Beecher was well 
founded or not, was the professed object for which the above named 
Committee were appointed by the Association. To accomplish the 
object of their appointment, in learning the facts concerning the 
founders of Knox College, and the sources and amount of the money 
by which it has been endowed, would require, as every one can see, 
much time spent in examining the records, and Treasurer's books, 
and all other documentary evidence belonging to the College. 
These are the principal sources to which any one must apply for 
full and reliable information on the points to be investigated by the 
Committee. To examine these documents with proper care is the 
work, as the writer hereof knows from experience, not of hours, but 
of many laborious days. The important nature of the facts to be 
investigated demanded of the Committee the most patient and faith- 
ful examination of all the CAddence to be obtained. The fact that 
their Report would affect materially the interests of the College con- 
cerned, and the relations of Presbyterians and Congregation alists 
throughout the State, made it the imperative duty of that Commit- 
tee to leave no book or paper' unexamined, which related to the mat- 
ter committed to them. Whether that Committee were faithful to 
their trust, and pursued that laborious process of careful investiga- 
tion which the nature of the case, and the importance of the matter 
demanded of them ; and whether they even made any investigation 



90 KNOX COLLEGE. 

whatever, shall be answered by their own published records, which 
are as follows : 

" The Committee, by appointment of the Chairman, met Tuesday, 
at 10 o'clock A. M., September 2Sth, 1858, at the Lecture Room 
of the First Church of Christ, in Galesburg, 111. Rev. Wm. W. 
Patton, and brother Charles G. Hammond, of Chicago — Rev. S. H. 
Emery, and brother Willard Keyes, of Quincy, a majority of the 
Committee, were present." [The minutes then give the items of the 
organization of the Committee, and other matters preparatory to 
their work, including "an order of investigation and business to 
be pursued in the public meeting." This consumed the morning 
hours, and the Committee adjourned until after dinner. The 
minutes then state as follows :] 

" l^ o'clock P. M. The Committee met and the exercises were 
opened with prayer by Rev. S. H. Emery. The Chairman stated 
that in their investigation the Committee would pursue the order 
of subjects found in the action of the Presbytery of Peoria and 
Knox taken at its meeting in Galesburg, Sept. 10th, 185*7, and pub- 
lished by its direction in the secular and religious papers. The 
messenger reported that he had delivered the note of invitation 
into the hands of Mr. Bailey, and that no reply was sent back. 

The remainder of the afternoon was spent in listening to argu- 
ments by Rev. J. Blanchard, Ex-President of Knox College, against 
the positions of the Presbytery, and in examining witnesses upon 
the various points raised, among whom were Rev. Messrs. Blanchard, 
E. Beecher and L. H. Parker, and Messrs. Colton, Simmons, Tomp- 
kins, Henry Ferris and De Long. 

Various printed and written documents were also placed in the 
hands of the Committee, among which were certified copies of the 
plot of the farm lands which had been sold by the College, and of 
the records of the county, showing to whom such lands had been 
deeded by the College. Adjourned till V o'clock P. M. 

7 o'clock P. M. The session was opened with prayer by the 
Chairman. The meeting was held ih the church to accommodate 
the great number in attendance, and the edifice was filled by a large 
and deeply interested congregation representing all parties. The 
investigation was resumed, and President Blanchard heard still 
further, and the following witnesses examined, viz. : Rev. L. H. 
Parker, and Dr. E. Beecher, and Messrs. H. Ferris, W. Ferris, E. 
Farnham and Paine. Additional printed and written documents 
were introduced. 

The Chairman and other members of the Committee repeatedly 
called upon those present to bear any testimony, make any state- 
ment, or ofi"er any suggestion relevant to any of the topics that had 
been brought forward. 

Rev. Edward Beecher, D. D., was then heard in defense of him- 
self against the charges made in the official paper of the Presbytery, 
vindicating his motives and conduct in the part which he had taken 
in the controversy respecting the College. 



91 

At a late hour, after the Chah*man had made a final call for fur- 
ther evidence or suggestions from any quarter, the Committee ad- 
journed to meet in Chicago, at the call of the Chairman, at some 
time during the sessions of the Triennial Convention, to meet Oct. 
20th. 

Oct. 21, 1858. The Committee met in Chicago at 9 o'clock 
A. M., and spent an hour in an interchange of views and in hearing 
the first part of the Report which had been drawn up by the Chair- 
man. Adjourned till to-morrow morning at 9 o'clock. 

Oct. 22, 9 o'clock A. M. The Committee met and the session 
was opened with prayer by the Chairman. The consideration of the 
Report was resumed, which was very carefully read and considered, 
paragraph by paragraph, with the evidence sustaining each position. 
After the unanimous adoption of the Report, the Chairman was 
directed to prepare a copious Appendix, containing the evidence 
upon which the Report was based, said Appendix to be submitted to 
the Committee for approval at a future meeting. 

April 25, 1859. The Committee met at the call of the Chairman, 
in Chicago, and heard the Appendix, which was approved. Ad- 
journed till meeting of General Association, at Bloomington. 

May 27, 1859. The Committee met at Bloomington, 111., for a 
final consideration of the Report and Appendix, which were unani- 
mously approved and ordered to be laid before the General Associ- 
ation. 

A ,. . ) Wm. W. Patton, Chairman. 

^^^^^^' [ S. H. Emery, Secretary:' 

The foregoing records show the following facts : 

1. That the Committee spent only one afternoon and evening^ 
after they were organized, in accomplishing the great work commit- 
ted to them by the General Association. 

2. That the whole afternoon^ and a part — the principal part in 
fact — of the evening, were " spent in listening to arguments by 
Rev. J. Blanchard, Ex-President of Knox College, against the posi- 
tions of the Presbytery, and in examining witnesses upon the various 
points raised." I ask the reader if "listening to an argument by 
Mr. Blanchard" was an investigation? The Committee well 
knew what Mr. Blanchard's feelings toward the College were. 
They knew what his views were on the questions in controversy, 
for he had published them more than a year before. The Presby- 
tery had made a statement fully denying the truth of Mr. Blan- 
chard's declarations. This Committee were sent to Galesburg to 
learn the truth of these matters, and they spent almost their whole 
time in listening to an argument from Mr. Blanchard. A few wit- 
nesses were examined on unimportant points — a few papers, prepared 



92 EZNOX COLLEGE. 

principally by Mr. Blancbard, or under his direction, were received 
by them ; but the records of the College — the books of the Treas- 
urer — the valuable reports and other documents on file with the 
Secretary, were not examined^ even for one moment. This Com- 
mittee did not investigate at all the matters in controversy. Do the 
public wonder now why leading Presbyterians in Galesburg did not 
come before that Committee and state what facts they knew^ in the 
case ? Had the Committee applied to the College Board, or its 
proper officers, for permission to examine the documents in their 
possession, and thereby indicated a determination to investigate 
thoroughly the whole question in controversy, then would Presby- 
terians have aided them gladly. But when the Committee assumed the 
position of a court, as they did, and left to Presbyterians the alter- 
native of coming before them and proving their own case^ or else 
of losing it by mere default, then it was resolved that the Committee 
might grope their own way, under then' own chosen guides, " blind 
leaders of the blind." 

3. The Minutes show further, that when Mr. Blanchard had 
ended his argument against the Presbytery, then " Rev. Edward 
Beecher, D. D., was heard in defense of himself ! ^'' In this way 
the Committee investigated this part of the case ; as though they 
did not know already what Dr. Beecher thought of himself And 
then — the labors of the Committee ended — they adjourned " at a 
late hour, to meet in Chicago " in three weeks from that time. 

4. The Minutes show that when the Committee met again in Chi- 
cago, after the day spent in Galesburg, they spent " cm Aowr " in 
conversation, and in hearing the first part of the Report, ichich had 
already " been drawn up by the Chairman.'''' The Committee made 
no investigation while in Galesburg, but spent their time in listening 
to Mr. Blanchard and Dr. Beecher. The first time they met again, 
their Report was already prepared, written by the Chairman, Rev. W. 
W. Patton. They met again the next day, when the remainder of 
the Report was very carefully " read and considered, paragraph by 
paragraph." The Chairman was then directed to prepare an Ap- 
pendix, which he did, and which was read to the other members of 
the Committee at a future meeting. And then the work of the 
Committee was done. 

5. It apiDears that the Hon. Owen Lovejoy, Rev. J. Emerson, and 
Rev. W. Carter, were not present at Galesburg, when the other 
members of the Committee met — never saw any of the documents 



93 

which must be appealed to in such a question as the one which led 
to their appointment — and yet that they afterward signed the Report 
with the others, declaring as their closing words, that their Report 
was a "statement of indubitable facts." How did these gentlemen 
know the statements of that Report to be " indubitable facts ?" 
Did they ever see the documents — those only which would be re- 
ceived in a court of justice — as proof that theirs was a statement of 
facts? 

Here, then, we see how faithful the Committee were to their trust. 
Their Report, instead of rising to the dignity of a candid and careful 
investigation, sinks down to nothing more than a labored indorse- 
ment, of Mr. Blanchard's story. Their Report, as to its substance, 
was prepared for them and put into their hands by Mr. Blan chard. 
The Association were, doubtless, all too willing to accept a Report, 
whose " indubitable facts " showed, what they had never known or 
dreamed of before, that Knox College had been founded and en- 
dowed by Congregationalists. The Committee confided in the judg- 
ment of their Chairman, and were willing enough to sign his Report, 
when it was so favorable to their cause. And their Chairman, in 
the fervor of his zeal against Presbyterianism, was blinded to the 
important fact that his Report was based upon no investigation or 
knowledge of his own, but that the strong-willed Ex-President had 
been using him as a mere Amanuensis. The result exhibits itself in 
a Report, every one of whose essential points flatly contradicts the 
Records and Treasury books, and the clear intentions of all the 
founders of the College. It was never before the fortune of any one 
man to persuade so many men, wiser and better than himself, to in- 
dorse and publish, on their own authority, so much error in so small 
a compass. The Committee introduce a large amount of miscel- 
laneous matter in the appendix to their Report, as proof of their 
statements. They no doubt believe their own Report. Their mis- 
fortune consisted in not investigating properly the questions 
submitted to them. They took whatever Mr. Blanchard put into 
their hands, and inquired no further. They were in Galesburg — 
their business was to go to the College and examine its docu- 
ments. This, as business men, they must have known was their 
duty. A large part of the public suppose they did this, as a matter 
of course. Their own Minutes show that they did no such thing. 
Every person in Galesburg knows that they did no such thing. 
Their " investigation " was a farce, as to its character, and an impo- 



94: KNOX COLLEGE. 

sition upon the public as to its results. Their pretended "indubita- 
ble facts" are not facts. Their Report, however, is now doing its 
daily work of wrong against Knox College. That Committee have 
a serious account yet to settle with the Church, the general public, 
and their own consciences, for sending forth such a Report, based 
on such an investigation, to injure such an Institution. 

The history contained in the foregoing pages of this pamphlet, 
derived from the archives of the College and from the testimony of 
its founders, is itself a complete answer to the Report before us. 
Yet, that the reader may more clearly perceive the gross errors 
which the Committee were so unfortunate as to indorse, I propose to 
compare some of the most important of their statements with the 
documents belonging to the College. Before doing this, the atten- 
tion of the reader is asked for one moment to the confidence with 
which the Committee assert the truth of their Report. In their clos- 
ing remarks, " the Committee unanimously declare that the allega- 
tions of the Presbytery are in every respect unfounded, and are 
indeed so opposite to the facts as to threaten to bring great discredit 
upon the statements emanating from ecclesiastical bodies." The 
Presbytery, it will be remembered, stated that Knox College had 
been founded and endowed mainly by Presbyterians. The Com- 
mittee submitted their Report as a " statement of indubitable facts." 
They declare in their minutes, that " the Report was very carefully 
read, and considered paragraph by paragraph, icith the evidence 
sustaining each positioiiy Thus they plight their honor as men to 
the Christian public and the world, for the truth of their Report. 

1. On page 23 of the Report, and in the appendix H, the Com- 
mittee endeavor to show that the " original subscription," obtained 
by Dr. Gale, was never collected, and that those Subscribers had a 
very small share in founding the College. They say, " the subscrip- 
tion, as such, was abandoned^ and but a fraction of the actual 
endowment was ever contributed by the original Subscribers." And 
again, " as a matter of fact, whatever money came from the original 
Subscribers forms a very small part of the funds of the College,, 
while the original subscription, as such, fell through and never was 
collected." 

Will the reader compare this bold statement of the Committee 
with the College records and other documents published in the first 
part of this pamphlet. Those records show that it was the '-''Sub- 
scribers'''' to Mr. Gale's Plan, who held the several meetings there 



95 

reported — who appointed the Exploring and Purchasing Commit- 
tees — who raised the money which bought all the land — who founded 
the College — and who then donated to it land, which has since then 
been worth to it more than half a million of dollars. These men 
called themselves " Subscribers to Mr. Gale's Plan," in their 
minutes, and they are the same men whose names are found in the 
original subscription book. 

2. But, say the Committee, page 58, " If the original subscrip- 
tion was paid, the money has never been accounted for to the Trus- 
tees of the College. The accounts are satisfactory and square with 
the facts without this sum ; but if this amount be added to the 
money obtained by loan and otherwise, there is a large deficit, for 
which somebody is responsible." How do the Committee know 
what the " accounts" are concerning this matter ? Did they ever 
examine them or get any statement from the Treasurer showing 
what they were ? Their statement is absolutely false. The earliest 
account books of the College, consisting of a "Blotter," a " Jour- 
nal," and a " Ledger," contain the names of all the Subscribers, 
except the four who took no lands. They are there credited with 
more than the whole amount of their original subscription. These 
books show that the College received from them all its original lands. 
They show that these Subscribers paid for all the lands given to the 
College. They show that they paid several thousand dollars more 
than the whole original cost of the land. The accounts of the Col- 
lege at the beginning are based wholly upon the donations made by 
those Subscribers. All these facts are the opening items of the 
College treasury books. There they stand facing every man who 
opens these books. Yet this Committee were duped into the reck- 
less statement that the accounts do not show that anything was ever 
paid by the Subscribers. 

3. In order to prove that the original subscription was aban- 
doned, the Committee give, to use their own language, page 59, " the 
names of the original Subscribers." This list of names, they say 
is a "certified copy," and w^as obtained "through the kindness of 
Professor Losey." Read what Professor Losey says : 

"I have never given any copy of the names contained in the sub- 
scription book to the Committee, or to any other person. I have 
never certified to the correctness of any copy of those names. Mr. 
Blanchard, at one time last year, asked to see the book, and I went 
with him to an office where the subscription book then was, and 



96 KNOX COLLEGE. 

requested him to examine it, that he might see how false were some 
of the statements which he had pnbhcly made not long before, 
respecting that subscription. He examined the book and wrote 
something at the same time. What he wrote I know not, although 
I supposed he was copying the names. 

Dec. 1859." ^- H. LoSEY. 

It turns out, then, that the " certified copy " did not come from 
Mr. Losey. From whom did it come ? 

4. That list of "the names of the original Subscribers," embrac- 
ing fifty-six in all, as given by the Committee,* c out Siins Jif teen names 
that are not found in the list of Subscribers in the subscription book! 
They are names added to those of the Subscribers, to make out the 
proof that the subscription fell through. The original subscription 
book contains, on its first page, the printed Plan of Mr. Gale. This 
is immediately followed by the following heading: "We, the Sub- 
scribers, agree to pay the sums set opposite to our names respect- 
ively, to such person or persons as shall be designated by the Sub- 
scribers or Board of Trustees elected by them, for the purposes, and 
in the manner set forth in the foregoing printed Preamble and Plan 
for establishing literary institutions in the West." This is followed 
by the names of the Subscribers, all in their own handwriting, except 
in two or three cases, when they were written by some one else, 
w^hich fact is always denoted with the initials of the person who 
wrote them. These names follow each other in the subscription 
book in close order. They are then followed by fourteen blank 
pages of the book, after which we come to a private memorandum, 
made by Mr. Gale while acting as agent of the Association. This 
memorandum is m pencil mark — all of it in the handwriting of Mr. 
Gale, and is thus headed : " Families who will go as soon (as) they 
can sell." After this follow fifteen names, more than half of them 
without any Christian name or initials prefixed. Now these fifteen 
names under this heading, "families who will go," etc., and sepa- 
rated from the Subscribers by fourteen blank pages, are all reported 
by the Committee as original Subscribers. Moreover, they had a 
" certified copy " that the list they give is correct. If any man certi- 
fied to the correctness of such a list, from an examination of the 
subscription book, he was guilty of something worse than a mistake. 

5. As further proof that the subscription fell through, the Com- 
mittee say, page 59, "that but ^e?^ persons " of the original Sub- 
scribers " actually engaged in the enterprise and made any pay- 

* The Subscription Book contains only forty-six names as Subscribers. 



"rights of congregationalists." 97 

more than three-quarters of the original Association 
purchased no farms, and their subscriptions were never paid." The 
Day -book, and Journal, and Ledger of the College, are all before me 
as I.write, and I see on their pages the names, not of ten only, but 
of thirty of these Subscribers, charged with lands bought of the 
Association, in January, 1836, according to the Plan. These thirty 
names embrace all but four of the Subscribers who founded the 
College. These Subscribers are charged with their lands as bona 
fide purchasers, and only eight of them ever returned their lands, 
which were only a small fraction of all that had been bought ; and 
this most of them did, at the earnest solicitation of the agent of the 
College, and solely for its benefit, and not because they were unwil- 
ling to pay for them. Had the Committee taken the trouble, while 
in Galesburg, to step into the office of the Treasurer and examine 
his books, they might have learned all these facts, and thus have 
saved themselves from an imposition, and have spared the College 
and its founders the great wrong their Report has done them. 

6. The Committee next endeavor to show that the sale of farm- 
lands to the Subscribers in Whitesboro', N. Y., in January, 1836, 
was only a "professed sale" — a "sale only in name " — and "the 
memorandum of it is entirely unreliable as showing actual, pecuni- 
ary transactions." Most unfortunate Committee ! The "memoran- 
dum " of that sale, which they think is so " entirely unreliable," 
chances to be, first, the College records ; second, a list of the lands 
sold and the names of the purchasers, made by the Secretary of the 
meeting at which the sale took place, and now on file among the 
papers of the College ; third, the Day-book ; fourth, the Journal ; 
fifth, the Ledger of the College treasury. The whole matter stands 
on the opening pages of these books, and it stands there just as it 
has been given in the early pages of this pamphlet. The College 
opens its books — commences its accounts — by recording the sale 
made at that meeting, in the State of New York. That sale was 
a part of the original Plan, and until then, the College, which had 
just been founded, had received no endowment. 

And here I pause and ask what do this Committee mean by such 
frequent and positive assertions concerning matters which they 
know nothing about, and which are contradicted in the plainest 
manner by the records and account books of the College ? Not 
only has the College been injured by such unpardonable errors of 
statement, but the public have been grossly imposed upon, and that 
7 



98 KNOX COLLEGE. 

too, by men from whom they had a right to expect a clear under- 
standing of the things which they declare to be " indubitable facts." 

7. The Committee, having shown in their Report, that the 
'• Subscribers, as such," neither founded nor endowed the Colj^ge, 
next endeavor to enlighten us upon the question, who were its fomid- 
ers and endowers ? The reader will remember what the College 
records have said on this point. According to them the College 
was founded by the Subscribers, at their meeting in January, 1836, 
in Whitesboro', N. Y., who then appointed its Board of Trustees. 
It was also endowed at that meeting by the same " Subscribers " 
who donated to it lands from which almost all its wealth has been 
derived. 

Now this Committee are not men who are ignorant of what is 
meant by founding and endowing a College. They know that the 
act of the Subscribers, in New York, was in every sense — in the 
fullest legal, technical, and moral sense — an act of founding and 
endowing. Then, and then only, was any action ever taken, by 
any one, to found Knox College. And the history of the College 
begins, in its own records, from that day. It was at that time also, 
as its own books show, that its lands, which tfave made it so rich, 
were given to it, and given for the express purpose of sustaining it 
in accomplishing the ends of a College. The men who originate 
the Plan for a College — who organize it — who appoint its Board of 
Trustees — and who then enrich it by their donations, are its found- 
ers and endowers. No men know this better than this Committee. 
Yet see how they represent this matter ! They gravely tell us that 
the men who came as early " settlers " into Galesburg, (a place 
that had no existence until after the College was founded) — who 
never donated one dollar in money or one acre of land to the Col- 
lege — ^who bought lands, not/or the College, but f^-om it, for their 
own private interest — these are the men by whom Knox College 
was founded and endowed. The men who came to Galesburg 
" and purchased the original l^ands " then owned and offered for sale 
by the College, " with scholarships attached, at a high rate," did 
it, say the Committee, p. 24, " for the express purpose of founding 
the College.''^ Again they say, on page 77, "there is no doubt that 
the original endowment of the College was by the sale of the farm- 
lands to those settlers who came during the early years of the en- 
terprise and who chose to pay live dollars there in order to endow 
the Collegey instead of purchasing at a less price elsewhere." Here 



99 

we have the views of this Committee, and these views run through 
the whole of their Report. The men who found and endow a Col- 
lege are not those who originate the plan— who organize the institution 
— who appoint a Board of Trust — who secure for it a Charter, nam- 
ing in that Charter the corporators — and who donate to it lands 
out of which it may realize an annual income equal to all its wants; 
but they are those " who came as settlers during the early 
years of the enterprise," who buy for their own private speculation 
the farm-lands which the College offers for sale to any man who is 
willing to pay its price. Honorable, magnanimous, "non-sectarian" 
Committee ! In order to drag in some names that belonged to 
Congregationalists, and hinge upon them a claim to the College, 
they put aside the " Subscribers " and ignore all their acts as found- 
ers, and then represent the College as having been founded and 
endowed by the men who bought its farm-lands — a representation 
which is as absurd as it is false. Never was there a more ungener- 
ous attempt, for mere party purposes, to falsify history, and deprive 
noble men of the honors due them, than this of the Committee, in 
endeavoring to transfer the credit of having founded and liberally 
endowed Knox College, from the " Subscribers " to the mixed 
multitude, with various interests, who constituted the early settlers 
of Galesburg. 

8. I come now to the most important part of the Report — that 
upon which the Committee base almost wholly the claim of Congre- 
gationalists to Knox College. On page 29 of their Report, the Com- 
mittee show that the College has received from Presbyterians, in 
donations and for lands sold them, only about |8,000, while it has 
received from Congregationalists, more than |67,000. "It thus 
appears," say they, " that where New School Presbyterians have 
contributed one dollar to the support and endowment of Knox Col- 
lege, Congregationalists have contributed eight dollars ! " " If, then, 
a denominational claim is to rest upon a pecuniary basis, it is evi- 
dent that the Institution should be in the hands of Congregational- 
ists." In respect to " pure donations" made to the College, the 
matter stands thus in the Report : " Congregationalists have fur- 
nished forty -nine dollars to one of the real donations !" This Com- 
mittee seem never to have known that the whole amount of lands 
which the College owned at first, was a " pure donation " from the 
founders. Or, if they knew it, they are careful that their readers 
shall never know it. The above " facts " of the Report are based 



100 KNOX COLLEGE. 

mainly upon that part of the " Appendix" embraced under the let- 
ter K., pp. 77-79. They there give a " certified list of the purcha- 
sers of the farm-lands of Knox College." They there show that 
Congregationalists have paid for farm-lands, above $25,000, while 
Presbj^terians have paid for farm-lands only about 1 7, 000. On page 
25 they say, "to this part of the Appendix the Committee would 
call the patient attention of every reader." The list of names which 
they there give, is declared by them to be " drawn from the County 
Records." The list was also " certified to be correct by Thomas 
N. Ayres & Son, Real Estate Agents." Then the list was " exam- 
ined by six of the early settlers, men of standing in Galesburg," 
who certify that the list of names, the amount purchased, and the 
price per acre paid by each purchaser, and also their Church rela- 
tions, are all correctly stated. These six gentlemen, who vouch for 
the truth of the Committee's statement, are Messrs. Eli Farnham, 
Henry Ferris, C. S. Colton, R. Payne, L. Sanderson, and Matthew 
Chambers. Four of them are Congregational members of the 
Board of Knox College. A portion of the Report so important as 
this is, in its bearings upon the argument of the Committee, and so 
well supported by vouchers, and " County Abstracts," deserves the 
" patient attention" which the Committee invite to it. The reader 
is asked to examine it with me, in the light of the College Treasury 
books, and of the County Recorder's certificate, and of other unde- 
niable facts, that it may be seen how utterly blind this Committee 
were, and into what depths of error they were led by the " argu- 
ment " to which they listened too credulously in Galesburg. 

(1.) The list furnished by the Committee contains the names of 
those who " purchased the farm-lands of Knox College," and be- 
cause they did this they are claimed as the actual " founders " and 
" endowers " of the College. To this point it is enough to say, that 
if the list were perfectly correct, it would have nothing to do with 
the question before the Committee. It requires no great amount of 
sense to know that the College must have been founded before it 
could own lands to sell to " early settlers," or to any one else. The 
real question is, who were those founders ? Certainly they w^ere not 
those who bought lands from the College. Then, it requires no more 
sense to know that the men who bought these lands f7^om the Col- 
lege, did not, in so doing, endow it. The men who gave those lands 
to the College were the men by whom it was endowed. Does the 
reader suppose our Committee were so ignorant as not to know these 



101 

things ? And if they did know them, what are we to think of their 
attempt to mislead the public on these points? They have commit- 
ted a great fault. It must be charged either against the head or 
against the heart. The Committee may choose for themselves which 
it shall be. If the Committee honestly believed that the purchasers 
of lands from the College, and not those who donated the lands to 
the College, are its " founders and endowers," why were they not 
consistent with themselves in their Report ? They state that Judge 
Phelps gave to the College eighteen quarter-sections of land., and 
therefore he is credited with almost the whole present endowment 
of the College. But, according to their previous representations, 
Judge Phelps did nothing toward endowing the College with his 
lands : The men who bought those lands from the College are the 
men to whom that credit belongs. Is not this something worse than 
nonsense ? But again, if the men who bought College lands for 
themselves, are its only real benefactors, then why have the Com- 
mittee inquired only concerning the purchasers of fann-landsf 
The village property has been worth far more than the farm-lands of 
the College. 

The College has at interest, at the present time, above $200,000. 
It has expended for buildings more than $100,000. It has expend- 
ed in other ways above $200,000. The College lands have thus 
furnished it with money, or its equivalent, to an amount exceeding 
half a million of dollars. The Committee have endeavored to show 
us the sources whence only $43,000 of this amount have been de- 
rived. But if the men who furnished $43,000, by buying College 
lands, are to be regarded as its endowers, are not those who furnished 
more than $450,000, in exactly the same way, to be regarded also 
as having done something toward its endowment? It seems 
puerile to labor to meet such positions as the above, and yet they 
are the essential points in the Report of the Committee. 

(2.) The list furnished by the Committee contains fifty-nine 
names of persons, all of whom are represented as having been 
among the " early settlers" of Galesburg, and who bought " during 
the early years of the enterprise." " They paid the money which 
started the College." " They were the men who bought of the 
Association,''^ and none of them are included among those who 
came in at a later day and " bought of the College, shice it has been 
endowed." How much truth there is in this part of the Report, will 



S. Richardson, 


a 


(( , (( 


(( 


(( 


A. B. Clark, 


cc 


(( (( 


(( 


(( 


G, W. G. Ferris, 


(( 


H <( 


(C 


u 


L. Gary, 


(( 


(( u 


C( 


a 


J. Jerauld, 


(( 


1846, 11 


(( 


ti 


A. G. Pearson, 


(( 


1853,18 


(( 


It 


W. D. Lee, 


(C 


1850, 15 


(C 


li 


J. Blanchard, 


(( 


1852,17 


(( 


a 



102 KKOX COLLEGE. 

appear from the following facts, take?! from the College books, con- 
cerning some of the names in the list of the Committee : 

W. A. Wood, purchased in 1854, 19 years after College was founded. 
~ — " " " (( 

(( 

(( 
a 

t: 

The above facts show that the Committee knew nothing about 
the matter of which they wrote. 

A large number of those reported in their list as having purchased 
at " an early date," purchased only within the last few years. And 
their list embraces some who never purchased any farm-lands of the 
College at any time. 

(3.) Every one of the fifty -nine purchasers is reported as having 
paid exactly jf??;e dollars an acre for his land. " They bought at five 
dollars an acre : " " They chose to pay five dollars instead of pur- 
chasing at a less price elsewhere." Now the simple fact is, that 
hardly one of all the actual purchasers in that list bought at exactly 
five dollars an acre. Every one of the six men, who vouch for the 
correctness of the list, paid on an average more than that price for 
the land they bought. To see how remote from the truth this Com- 
mittee are, look at the following names as they stand on the Col- 
lege books : 



L. Gary, 


paid per acre. 


$25 


A. G. Pearson, 


U (( 


(( 


30 


W. A. Wood, 


<C il 


a 


25 


S. Richardson, 


(( (( 


li 


22 


A. B. Clark, 


(( a 


li 


21 


G. W. G. Ferris, 


a li 


li 


30 


J. Blanchard, 


(( (( 


(( 


15 



The number of names might be increased with a like result as this 
until it embraced/2<^^ three-fourths of all reported by the Committee 
who were actual purchasers of the College lands. But my only 
object is to present enough to convince the Committee of the grave 
errors into which they fell. 

(4.) As the price per acre, according to the Committee, was ex- 
actly five dollars, while according to the College treasury it was in 
almost every case much more than that, so the amounts paid by 



103 

each one, as given by the Committee, are, in most cases, much less 
than those credited on the Treasurer's books : 



W. A. Wood, paid as per 


Report, 


$600 


as per 


Treasurer, 


$3,850 


S. Ferris, " " " 


(( 


1,200 


(( (( 




3,160 


G. W. Gale, " " " 


6C 


1,200 


(( a 




3,9S0 


G. W. G. Ferris, ^' " " 


(C 


1,500 


U li 




8,630 


K West, '' " " 


li 


600 


(( a 




1,480 


A. G. Pearson, " " " 


n 


400 


ii (( 




2,400 


L. Gary, " " " 


a 


400 


a a 




2,000 


J. Blanchard, " " " 


a 


800 


a (( 




2,400 



The reader can see how much credit is to be given to the claims 
of the Committee in behalf of Congregationalists when they are 
founded upon such statements as theirs above. The Committee find 
that all the Presbyterian purchasers together paid only about $7,000. 
In the above list the first five names are those of Presbyterians, 
who, it will be seen, paid more than $21,000. One of those Pres- 
byterians alone paid more than the Committee have credited to 
that whole class in their entire list. 

(5.) According to the Committee only nine of all the fifty-nine 
names in their list were Presbyterians, and they only purchased to 
the aggregate amount of $7,400. N'ow if these nine were all the 
purchasers who were Presbyterians, which they are not, still the 
treasury books show that these same nine bought farm-lands to the 
amount of $16,910. 

(6.) The Committee profess to give only the names of purchasers 
at an early day. In classifying them as Congregationalists or Pres- 
byterians they credit to the former class all who now ^'sustain 
the two Congregational Churches in Galesburg." This is certainly 
an easy method of settling a question about matters that occurred, 
as they claim, twenty and more years ago. Many of those " who 
now sustain the two Congregational Churches " in this place, were 
Presbyterians twenty years ago, and never then had even a dream 
that they would ever become Congregationalists. Some of them 
are yet Presbyterians. As proof of these points read the following 
certificate from one of those reported as Congregational purchasers : 

" I hereby certify that I was a Presbyterian when I bought my 
land of the Agent of the College, and have never changed my sen- 
timents. 

Henkt Wilcox. 

Galesburg, July 28, 1859." 



104 



KNOX COLLEGE. 



This gentleman " supports one of the Congregational Churches 
in Galesburg." What he declares to be true of himself is true of 
not a few of those claimed by the Committee as Congregationalists. 

(7.) In the list of the Committee are a number of names, as pur- 
chasers from the College, who in fact did not buy of the College, 
but of some other party. As proof of this point read the following 
statement from one of the " supporters of one of the Congrega- 
tional Churches " in this place : 

" I hereby certify that I had been for many years previous to 
coming here, an officer in a Presbyterian Church, and that I united, 
with the Church in this place as a Presbyterian. The land which 
I purchased had passed through several hands after it was sold by 
the College before I came in possession of it. I assumed a part of 
the indebtedness to the Trustees, and as was customary in such cases, 
I received my deed from them. 

Joel IVIaktin. 

Galesburg, Aug. 1859." 

(8.) The Committee throw out of the account seven names em- 
braced in their list because their " sentiments are not known." 
At first view this seems very fair, but when it proves to be a fact, 
well known to others if not to the Committee, that all of these 
seven were Presbyterians, except one, who was 7iot a Congregation- 
alist, then the ignorance of the Committee assumes a suspicious 
hue. Their ignorance occurred at that fortunate moment when it 
would have been " folly to be wise." They thereby deduct several 
thousand dollars from the Presbyterian column. 

(9.) The Committee, in this list, have been compelled to give the 
names of some of the " Subscribers " as purchasers, who are said 
in their Appendix " H," 7iot to have purchased of the College. But 
that a careful reader may not discover the discrepancy, the list now 
under examination gives some of those names without any initials 
or Christian name prefixed, and others with the initials changed 
from those of the real purchaser. Did the Committee know this 
when they published that list of names ? 

(10.) The Committee show that Congregationalists paid at "an 
early day " for " farm-lands " above $25,000. The treasury books 
show that from the day the College was founded, in 1836, until noWy 
Congregationalists have paid for farm-lands only 814,520. 

(11.) According to the Committee there were fifty-nine who 
purchased at an " early day " to " start the College," only teii of 
whom were "original Subscribers," as appears in Appendix "H." 



105 

The College treasury shows that thirty of the original Subscribers 
became purchasers of farm-lands, and then that the whole number 
of purchasers, including these thirty, during the ^r^t fourteen years 
of the College was not as great as that given by this Committee. 

(12.) But, say the Committee, "this list has been examined by 
six of the early settlers, men of standing in Galesburg," and they 
" certify that the same is, according to their best knowledge and 
belief, correct." Let me inform the Committee of what some of 
these same gentlemen say about that list. They indignantly deny 
having ever certified to the list as it is published in the Report. 
They were asked to give a list of the names of the purchasers of 
the College farm-lands without reference to the time of the pur- 
chase or the price to be paid. This they did as well as they were 
able without any documents, and trusting to their memory, which 
had to extend over a period of more than twenty years. And to 
such a list they appended their certificate. That list was changed 
in several important respects after it left their hands. This is what 
some of these gentlemen declare, and this statement is published by 
permission from one of them. No effort has been made to learn 
the views of the others, but my knowledge of those gentlemen 
leads me to believe that none of them certified to the correctness of 
the list in the form published by the Committee. They knew that 
list to be incorrect. And here let me ask this Committee why they 
went to these gentlemen to learn who had bought College lands at 
an early day ? Did they not know that the College books were the 
proper sources of information on that point ? Did not such a gen- 
tleman as C. G. Hammond, Esq., who manages one of the largest 
and most complicated business interests of this country, know that 
it Avas sheer folly to go about the streets of G-alesburg asking for 
information as to who bought the College lands, when the College 
Treasurer was in possession of every fact, and as a Congregational- 
ist would cheerfully have given any information needed ? The truth 
is, the Committee simply published what had already been prepared 
for them by another party — and the man who prepared the materials 
of that Report dared not go to the College books for facts. All 
Galesburg guesses who that man is. 

(13.) Not only did six gentlemen certify to the correctness of the list, 
but, say the Committee, it was " drawn from the county records," 
it is a "certified abstract from the county records, pp. 77, 24." 
If this were so, it would not show that the persons there named 



106 KNOX COLLEGE. 

actually bought of the College and " paid the money " to the Col- 
lege. Many persons here have deeds from the College, who never 
paid to its treasury a dollar. This has already been explained. But 
now mark what follows : A few names were selected from the Com- 
mittee's list, enough to test the point involved, and were given to the 
County Recorder, who was directed to certify under the seal of his 
office whether they are found upon the county records as purchasers 
of farm lands from the College at any time^ whether at an " early " 
date or at any date. This is his certificate : 

" State of Illinois, ) 

Knox County^ \ ' I, Cephas Arms, Clerk of the Circuit 
Court, and J5Jx- Officio Recorder in and for said Knox county, do 
hereby certify that the names of Jones Harding, W. E. Holyoke, Hugh 

Conger, Sherman Williams, William Lee, Dutton, S. Richardson 

and W. A. Wood, are not found upon the Records of Knox county, as 
purchasers of farm-lands from the Trustees of Knox M. L. College. 
In witness thereof, I have hereunto affixed my name and the seal 
of said office, at Knoxville, this 9th day of August, A. D., 1859. 

Cephas Arms, Clerk, [seal.] " 

Now, as a matter of fact, some of the parties named by the 
Recorder did buy lands of the College, and paid the money for 
them; but before their payments were completed, they sold to some 
one else, and that person to whom they sold received the deed, and 
his name is the one that will be found on the county records. Our 
Committee, however, assert that the foregoing names are taken 
from the county records. The certificate of the Recorder shows 
that they are no^ upon those records, as purchasers from the College. 

(14.) But once more, say this sagacious Committee, the list is not 
only taken from the county records, and vouched for as correct, 
by "six gentlemen of standing in Galesburg," but it is also 
" certified to be correct by Thomas N. Ayres & Son, Real Estate 
Agents." Read now what Thomas N. Ayres & Son say on that 

point : 

" Galesburg, Jan. lYtb, 1860. 

We do hereby certify, that the statement of the ' purchasers of 
farm-lands from Knox College,' purporting to have been certified 
to by Thomas N. Ayres & Son, Real Estate Agents, in 'Appendix 
R.,' to * a Report of the Committee of Investigation of the General 
Association of Illinois,' entitled ' Rights of Congregationalists in 
Knox College,' is materially different from the statement furnished 
by us, heretofore, to Rev. J. Blanchard. 

Aykes, Bates & Co., 

Successors of Thos. JV. Ayres & Son.^^ 



107 

These gentlemen were not willing to risk their reputation for 
business accuracy, by allowing the statement of the Committee 
concerning them to go uncorrected. The secret is all out, too, 
through their certificate, as to who furnished the Committee with 
their extraordinary list of names ! That list is incorrect in every 
essential respect. Yet upon that list of names is built up almost 
the whole argument in behalf of the *' Rights of Congregationalists 
in Knox College." In leaving this part of the Report, I must say 
that I know not whether to wonder most at the audacity of the 
man who ventured to impose that statement upon such men as com- 
posed this Committee, or at the unaccountable credulity of the 
Committee in receiving it. No " camel " appears to have been too 
great for their receptive powers, provided it favored their cause. 
They proved every statement, they say, "paragraph by paragraph," 
and yet they reported, in their list of names, that of Mr. Blan chard, 
as one who bought of the College, at an early day, at five dollars an 
acre, to the amount of $800, which he paid, to " start the College." 
Yet Mr. Blanchard did not come to Galesburg until ten years after 
the College had been founded, and he did not buy any of its lands 
until almost seven years after he came here, and he was to pay for 
them $2,400, at $15 an acre, and the College indorsed upon his 
unpaid note, as a donation, two-thirds of the whole sum, since his 
removal from its Presidency. Truly the Committee have stated 
" indubitable facts ! " 

9. I have already called the reader's attention to a statement of 
the Committee, respecting the value of the donation made to the 
College by Hon. Charles Phelps. They say, p. 26, that donation 
was " estimated to be worth at the time $30,000," and it now con- 
stitutes "the principal part of the College endowment of over 
$300,000 ! " I have shown that the donation was not estimated to 
be worth $15,000 when made, and that it is not yet worth $30,000. 
How could the Committee have made such a mistake ? 

But I have a special object in recalling this matter at this time. 
When the Report of the Committee was adopted by the unanimous 
vote of the General Association, there were present, as members of 
the Association, according to its Minutes, the following Trustees of 
the College : Rev. F. Bascom, Rev. W. E. Holyoke, Rev. S. G. 
"Wright, Rev. H. Foote, and E. Farnham, Esq. Now these five 
gentlemen have been in attendance upon all the meetings of the 
Board of the College, from the time the donation of Mr. Phelps 



lOS KNOX COLLEGE. 

was ma'^e, to the present. They were present when that donation 
was made. The College records show this to be true. They heard 
the report of the Treasurer the next year, 1854, when he gave the 
value of that donation at $20,356.95. They accepted his report, at 
that time, as true. They have heard his annual reports from that 
time until the present year. Some of them have served on a Com- 
mittee to determine the manner of using the money received from 
the sale of those lands. I ask these gentlemen how, as ministers of 
the Gospel, and Christian men, they could vote for the Report of 
the Committee, when they knew that part of it relating to the 
Phelps donation to be so untrue? How can they justify themselves 
to the Commitee, saying nothing of the public, for allowing them 
to fall into so immense an error? Are we to think that they are 
willing to allow any statement, however untrue, to go forth to the 
public, that will damage Knox College, and the interests of Presby- 
terianism ? But let us view the matter from another stand-point. In 
less than four weeks after these Trustees had voted for the Report 
of the Committee in the Association, and directed it to be " printed 
and distributed," they met in Galesburg, in the annual meeting of 
the College Board. At that meeting, the Treasurer presented his 
annual report, in which he gave, as an item hy itself^ the present 
value of the Phelps donation at $26,272.15. 

This report was accepted without a word of objection. Yet 
according to the Report of the Committee, for which these five 
Trustees had only a few days before voted, the Treasurer made the 
enormous mistake of at least $300,000, in his estimate of the value 
of the Phelps' donation. Did these Trustees charge him with this 
mistake ? Did they object to the Report on that account ? Did they, 
as honest guardians of a great trust, inquire at all, what had become 
of the " munificent bequest of the late Hon. Charles Phelps, now 
constituting the principal part of the College endowment, of over 
$300,000 "? Not a word of the kind was heard from one of them. 
Yet the published Report of the Committee, containing these errors, 
was very busily circulated during that meeting of the Board, and at 
the Commencement exercises of the College. 

10. On page 51 of the Report is a certificate, signed by Mr. Blan- 
chard and seven Congregational Trustees of the College, that in 
1854 a " compromise resolution" was adopted by the united votes 
of the whole Board, "binding the Board, in all future elections, to 
abstain from any party action." But, say they, when the party 



"kights of congregationalists." 109 

opposed to Mr. Blanchard " obtained an accidental majority they 
denied the force of the said resohition, and did not hesitate to vio- 
late it by the election of men to the Board hy a strictly party lioteP 
Now, since 1854 there have been but two Trustees elected to the 
Board, viz. : C. M. Pomroy and Thomas G. Frost. On examining 
the College records, I find the following minutes respecting these 
elections: "Voted, that the place of Peter Butler (a Baptist,) in 
this Board, be declared vacant." " Several names were proposed, 
and voted upon, without effecting an election, w^hen a recess of 
fifteen minutes was taken for consultation^ " After the expiration 
of the time above named, the members again took their seats, when 
Mr. Browning nominated Caleb M. Pomroy, of Quincy, (a Baptist,) 
who was then unanimously elected a Trustee of Knox College." 
This was in 1856. In 1858, Mr. S. Ferris resigned his place as a 
Trustee. His place, according to the records, was filled as follows : 
*' Thomas G. Frost was then nominated and unanimously elected a 
Trustee of Knox College." So much for the violation of a com- 
promise " by the election of men to the Board by a strictly party 
vote." The only two men elected, have been elected by the votes 
of the whole Board. 

The same Trustees, who gave the above certificate, have also, on 
pp. 51, 52, certified that the party opposed to Mr. Blanchard, did, in 
1849, leave a meeting of the Board, in order to deprive it of a 
quorum — and that in 1857 they absented themselves from another 
meeting, for the same purpose. They certify, also, that " we (the 
Congregationalists) proposed to them (the rest of the Board) that 
we would vote for a non-sectarian President, such as Rev. Asa D. 
Smith, D. D., which proposition they refused to accept." Dear 
reader, did you ever think why Paul joined together those two 
asseverations, *' I speak the truth and lie not"? 

As a commentary thereon, notice these facts : The meetings in 
1849 and in 1857, were broken up in the manner certified. But from 
the honest indignation which these gentlemen, who sign the certifi- 
cate, express for such acts, do you not understand them to claim 
entire exemption from all acts of the same kind ? Yet, in October, 
1857, they absented themselves a whole day from a meeting of the 
Board, solely in order to prevent the election of Rev. Dr. Thompson, 
of Buffalo, as President of the College. 

It is true, also, that they did offer to elect Rev. A. D. Smith, D.D., 
but that was in 1858, when Dr. Curtis' name was before them for 



110 KNOX COLLEGE. 

election, and when they "knew that Dr. Smith had, long before, posi- 
tively refused to be a candidate for the Presidency, and when they 
had, the year before, being then a majority, voted to lay on the table 
the motion to elect Dr. Smith ! 

11. The Congregational Trustees complain that the other parties 
in the Board have violated a " compromise resolution," which, they 
claim, bound *' the Board, in all future elections, to abstain from 
any party action." No compromise resolution having such a sense 
as they put upon it, has ever been passed by the Board. But if 
such a resolution had been passed, I leave the reader to judge for 
himself which party has violated it, by " party action," after recall- 
ing the fact that the Congregationalists have been a party, by them- 
selves, in the Board, during all the attempts of the Board to fill the 
vacancies occasioned by the resignation of Mr. Blanchard and Mr. 
Gale. They rejected Doctors Smith, and Allen, and Condit, and 
Barnes, and Thompson, and voted against Dr. Curtis on no other 
ground than that they were Presbyterians. They were the only 
party who were composed of men of one denomination, and no 
more. And yet, with amazing blindness, they charge " pai'ty ac- 
tion " and " intense sectarianism," upon all the other members of 
the Board, who represent four different denominations. 

12. The Committee are equally determined to prove that the 
majority of the Board are wretchedly "sectarian," although it num- 
bers, among its members, a Baptist, an Episcopalian, and both Old 
and New School Presbyterians, They, however, very conveniently 
style them all New School Presbyterians, and then, by a sort of 
Aristotelian process, prove them to be sectarian, because, as they 
assert, the whole denomination is so. In this line of argument they 
refer to the recent " unanimous votes in the General Assembly, on 
the subjects of Church Extension, Church Erection, Home and 
Foreign Missions, the Publication of books and tracts, and Minis- 
terial Education." This "sectarian spirit," the Committee say, 
" has led to the establishment of sectarian Presbyterian Colleges, in 
this and contiguous States," and to a determination " to institute a 
Theological Seminary for themselves alone." Saying nothing of the 
logic or the truthfulness of this part of the Report, one must suppose, 
from the pious horror with which they announce the above misdeeds 
of the New School Presbyterian Church, that the Committee have 
never heard of any exclusively Congregational plans for Church 
Erection or Church Extension, or Publication, and the like. They 



Ill 

have, doubtless, never heard of the " Illinois Home Missionary As- 
sociation," whose Corresponding Secretary is Rev. W. W. Patton, 
which last fact is sufficient proof that it is a Congregational Society. 
They never have heard of the Congregational " American Mission- 
ary Association " for Foreign Missions. They never have heard of 
" Church Erection Funds " contributed by their own denomination, 
and solely for their own use. They are no doubt totally ignorant of 
the existence of the " Congregational Board of Publication." They 
are not aware of any exclusively Congregational Colleges, in Iowa, 
and in other parts of the West, saying nothing of a/ew Institutions^ 
belonging to their denomination, in that remote region of our land, 
which the Committee may have heard about, by the name of New 
England. And this Committee, certainly, are not yet informed of 
the fact, that Congregationalists have instituted " a Theological 
Seminary /or themselves alone,'''' in the city of Chicago, and that its 
library has pledged for its benefit all " the net profits P'' of that pre- 
eminently non-sectarian paper, the Congregational Herald, whose 
principal editor is the Chairman of our Committee ! I hope this 
Committee may become informed of these facts before they expend 
any more indignation about the *' sectarianism " of the New School 
Presbyterian Church. As containing a full reply to all this mere 
verbiage of the Committee about sectarianism, I commend to them 
these words of an inspired Apostle: "Wherein thou judgest 
another, thou condemnest thyself, for thou that judgest doest the 
same things.'''' 

Before dismissing this matter I must ask the reader's attention to 
the following facts : Congregationalists have the President, nearly 
all the Faculty, and at least an equal number, if not a majority of the 
Trustees of Beloit College. They have the President and their full 
share of the Faculty and Trustees of Illinois College. They have a 
majority of the Faculty, and a larger number of Trustees than New 
School Presbyterians have, in Knox College, Yet, solely because 
they cannot have the entire control of Knox College, they wage a 
furious war upon it. They have entertained, in their Association, 
proposals from the Wesleyan Methodists, to receive as their own, 
and build up the Wheaton Institute; and Mr. Blanchard has, 
through their agency, been appointed its President, and has already 
entered upon the duties of his office. This Wheaton Institute is 
twenty-five miles west of Chicago — has no endowment — and but 
little more than twenty thousand dollars' worth of property of all 



112 KNOX COLLEGE. 

kinds. It is in the center of a region which embraces the Baptist 
University — the Methodist Institutions at Evanston — Lind Univer- 
sity — and Beloit, and Knox, and Illinois Colleges. A College at 
Wheaton is not demanded by any public interests whatever — it can 
be sustained and endowed only by extraordinary efforts— and if it 
should ever be successful it must be at the expense of at least some 
one of the Colleges that so closely encircle it, in which Congrega- 
tionalists are already interested. No reason whatever exists for 
building up that Institution, except that it will enable these " co- 
operative" Congregation alists, who have such a large share in the 
control of so many other Colleges, to call one College exclusively 
their own. If they think it wise to do this, no one objects. But 
for the sake of common sense as well as of honesty, while they are 
doing this, let them give up this whining cant about " sectarianism." 
13. Having proved that the whole New School General Assembly 
is sectarian, and that therefore the majority of the Trustees of Knox 
College are so, the Committee next proceed to establish the same 
conclusion, by reporting what the Rev. Mr. Spencer, and the Rev. 
Dr. Patterson, of Chicago, have said about the College, although 
neither of these gentlemen have anything to do with its control. In 
the Appendix to the Report, letter " G," is this statement : 

"Rev. L. H. Parker, of Galesburg, testified before the Committee 
as follows: * Last spring I was at Geneseo, in my capacity as Trustee 
of the Academy in that place. There were propositions under con- 
sideration, with reference to its coming under the distinctive control 
of N. S. Presbyterians. I met there Rev. Mr. Spencer — N. S, Presby- 
terian minister, now resident in Chicago — who said that it was now 
the design and settled policy of his denomination to bring all the 
schools, academies and colleges, in which they icere interested, under 
their distinctive ecclesiastical control. In accomplishing this, Knox 
College, he remarked, had given them more trouble than any other 
institution.'" 

Truly, " ambition " is not the only thing that " o'erleaps itself." 
I suppose every reader, unless it be the Rev. L. H. Parker, knows 
exactly what is meant by " distinctive ecclesiastical control." A 
College would be under "ecclesiastical control" when controlled 
directly by a religious denomination, or by Trustees elected by a 
religious denomination. The Congregational Theological Seminary 
of Chicago is an instance of such control. But Knox College is, 
by its Charter, a close corporation, a self-perpetuating body, which 
appoints within itself all its Trustees, and therefore cannot possibly 
be under "ecclesiastical control." Mr. Parker knew this well 



113 

enough. But in his anxiety to prove something against the College, 
he has proved too much. Mr. Spencer could hardly have talked 
about the actual " accomplishment" of the purpose of Presbyterians 
to bring Knox College under " distinctive ecclesiastical control." 
The thing is simply impossible, even if there were such a desire. 
Mr. Parker will do well to refresh his ^^ ecclesiasticaV knowledge, 
before he gives another certificate about '''"ecclesiastical control." 
But alas ! for the Committee, Mr. Spencer denies having said what 
Mr. Parker has attributed to him. In a letter written to me on this 
subject, during the past summer, Mr. Spencer says : 

"I am constrained to contradict the very explicit testimony of the 
Rev. L. H. Parker. I did not say that it was now the design and 
settled policy of my denomination to hring all the schools, and acad- 
emies, and colleges, in which we are interested, under our ecclesiastical 
control. I knew that such a statement would be false. The subject of 
bringing existing co-operative institutions under ecclesiastical con- 
trol was not mentioned. I was opposed to entering into any co- 
operative arrangement to sustain Geneseo Academy, and gave it as 
my opinion that such efforts would in future be discountenanced. 
The only reference to Knox College made by me, was to discourage 
the idea that a similar union of denominations might sustain 
Geneseo Academy. A frank opposition to a union effort in the case 
of that Academy, based upon a somewhat troublesome co-operative 
experience in Knox College, was a very natural occurrence. The 
difficulties in Knox College were referred to merely as a warning 
against future efforts of that kind. It is of no importance, whatever, 
to correct Mr. Parker's misapprehension of my personal views on 
this subject. But as one of three men chosen to prove the exist- 
ence of a ' settled ' denominational ' policy,' concerning all schools, 
academies and colleges, in which New School Presbyterians are 
interested, it is important for me to deny that I ever said there is 
such a policy as Mr. Parker speaks of, or that this was the cause of 
the troubles at Knox College. y^ ^L. Spencee." 

Fearing that Mr. Parker might not be a witness of sufficient 
" standing," the Committee next introduce Rev. Edward Beecherj 
D. D., who is made to testify as follows : 

*' Before the election of Dr. Curtis to the Presidency, I had an in- 
terview with Rev. Dr. Patterson of Chicago, to see whether some 
investigation of facts, or reference to arbitrators, or basis of adjust- 
ment, could not be secured prior to any election by the Board of 
Trust. But such an effort at an accommodation of differences was 
wholly objected to and refused, both by Dr. P. and by Dr. Gale. 
Dr. P. asserted that the College belonged to the N. S. Presbyte- 
rians, and that they ought to have the entire control of it." 
8 



114 KNOX COLLEGE. 

!N"ow if the above statement were in all particulars correct, yet it 
may well be asked what Dr. Beecher had to do with these affairs of 
Knox College? He had no connection with the College whatever. 
He was not one of its Trustees. He was not commissioned by its 
Board to intercede with Dr. Patterson or anyone else in their behalf. 
The Board were about to elect a President. Dr. Beecher attempted 
to prevent it. Why ? Solely because they Avere about to elect a 
Presbyterian. As long as there w^as any hope of securing a Con- 
gregationalist as President, Dr. Beecher never thought any " investi- 
gation of facts " necessary. His proposal now was merely an attempt 
to delay present action by the Board, and thus, of course, get rid of 
Dr. Curtis as a candidate, as had been done with other candidates. 
But again, why appeal to Dr. Patterson ? He had nothing to do 
with the control of the College. All who know him know that he 
would not dictate to the Board of Trustees what their action should 
be, even with the example of Dr. Beecher to encourage him. Dr. 
Patterson does know, if Dr. Beecher does not, what the rights of a 
Board of Trustees like that of Knox College are, and he would be 
the last man to attempt to control such a Board \)j outside pi' essure. 
Let us hear, however, what Dr. Patterson says concerning the truth 
of Dr. Beecher's statement. 

K " Prof. J. W. Bailey : 

Dear JBro. — In the pamphlet entitled * Rights of Congrega- 
tionalists in Knox College,' p. 56, I find a statement from Dr. 
Edward Beecher, in which a report is given of a conversation be- 
tween Dr. B. and myself, that is truly surprising. Dr. B. represents 
that he proposed to me a reference of the difficulties in Knox College, 
to arbitrators ; but that ' such an effort at an accommodation of 
differences was loholly objected to and refused, both by Dr. P. and 
by Dr. Gale.' Dr. B. then adds, as an explanation of the ground 
on which I 'refused such an effort at accommodation,' that 'Dr. 
P. asserted that the College belonged to the JST. S. Presbyterians, 
and that they ought to have the entire control of it.'' 

I am sorry to be obliged to pronounce these representations utter- 
ly untrue. The facts are as follows : A few months after Presi- 
dent Blanchard, by request of the Board, resigned. Dr. Beecher 
came to Chicago and delivered a public lecture on the affairs of 
Knox College, which abounded in bitter denunciations of the major- 
ity of the Board, and of Dr. Gale in particular. This lecture I 
heard. On the next day after its delivery Dr. B. called on me, and 
introduced the subject of his lecture, laboring, as I thought, under 
great mental excitement. He asked what I would think of a refer- 
ence of the difficulties in the College to arbitrators, with a view to 



115 

some accommodation of differences. I replied, that I thought his 
lectm-e was a very unfortmiate preparation for such an accommoda- 
tion, adding, that the College was wholly under the control of its 
legally constituted Board of Trust, and that it appeared to me that 
we in Chicago would be guilty of impertinence in attempting to 
interfere with its affairs, unless the Board should request our coun- 
sel or interposition. This is the substance of all that I said on that 
point, and Dr. B. knows it perfectly well. After that point was 
passed in the conversation, I remarked, that I did not think it possi- 
ble to maintain an exact balance in a Board of College Trustees be- 
tween two religious denominations, and that if one denomination 
must have a majority, it should be that one which had done the 
most to found the institution, as was very properly true in the case 
of Beloit College, on the Congregational side. I added that, as I 
understood the facts, the Presbyterians would be entitled, on this 
principle, to a majority in the Board of Knox College. At the 
same time I said, and repeated the remark, that no one^ so far as J 
kneWy wished that the Presbyteriajis should have ' the entire controV 
of the College; that the Congregationalists ought to he liberally re- 
presented in the Boards etc. But I reminded Dr. B. that the Con- 
gregationalists had, as yet, more Trustees than the Presbyterians, 
after all the noise that had been made about the revolutionizing of 
the College. 

I am confident that the statements which I now make are correct, 
both from my own distinct recollection and from the confirmatory 
recollection of another person who was present. I can only account 
for Dr. Beecher's egregious errors in the ' testimony ' which he has 
given touching this matter, by attributing them to his extraordinary 
mental excitement, which must have led to some strange confusion 
in his thoughts and impressions. It may be proper to add here, 
that I know of no man in our Church who desires or would consent 
to the exclusion of Congregationalists from participation in the gov- 
ernment of Knox College or of any other Institution which has 
been established in any measure on the ' co-operative ' principle. 
I have known Rev. W. H. Spencer intimately for many years, and 
I am sure that he entertains no such views or feelings as have been 
attributed to him by Rov. L. H. Parker. Our experience has led 
us to doubt the expediency of establishing any new Institutions on 
the co-operative basis. But we are for keeping all engagements, 
already made, in good faith. 

Very truly yours, 

Chicago, Aug. 1, 1859." R. W. PatteesoN". 

This letter of Dr. Patterson was written last summer. The 
Report of the Committee had then been doing its work of misrepre- 
senting him for more than two months. No word, however, had 
come from Dr. Beecher correcting or in any way modifying the 
statement ascribed to him in that Report. No such word has yet 



116 KNOX COLLEGE. 

come from him, so as to reach the public ear. That, of course, 
could not be expected of him if he actually made the statement 
which the Committee ascribe to him. Bat now mark what follows : 
In October last, the Synod of Peoria met in Galesburg, and then 
Dr. Patterson had an opportunity of meeting Dr. Beecher face to 
face, and of inquiring of him on what grounds he had made such a 
statement concerning him. The results of that interview will be 
seen in the following letter : 

"Rev. J. W. Bailey: Dear Brother — I have recently had an 
interview with Dr. Beecher. He assures me that the document put 
forth as his ' testimony,' was never submitted to his inspection, or 
read to him, before its publication ; and that he never intended to 
make such statements as it attributes to him. As I understand him, 
he and I do not differ much as to the substance of his former con- 
versation or conversations with me respecting Knox College. So 
much the worse for the framers of the document which appears in 
the pamphlet as Dr. Beecher's testimony. 

Yours truly, 

Chicago, Nov. 1, 1859." R. W. PATTERSON. 

So much for the "indubitable facts" contained in the Report 
drawn up by Rev. W. W. Patton, signed as true by himself and the 
other members of the Committee associated with him, and adopted 
and published by the " unanimous " vote of the whole Congrega- 
tional General Association of Illinois and scattered over the whole 
country ! 

14. It would have been most grateful to my feelings had the 
Report which I am examining permitted me to close my work with- 
out any special statements respecting Rev. Edward Beecher, D. D. 
The Committee, however, have not left me the privilege of remain- 
ing entirely silent concerning him, unless, indeed, I consent to leave 
some important interests of the College to suffer through their ex- 
travagant laudation of him for his open and long- continued warfare 
upon it. The Committee have not been content to assert their 
belief in his good intentions while he was engaged two years ago 
in breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the majority of 
the College Board and all their supporters, but they have, with 
evident relish for such work as his, pronounced his whole course of 
personal denunciations " a defense of the highest interests of the 
College and community — yea, of religion and morality." This 
Committee are of the opinion that *'the spirit displayed by Dr. 
Beecher in his statements and arguments " against the College Board 



117 

" was eminently Christian." They have fully sanctioned all that he 
has written against the College. Dr. Beecher has also re-affirmed 
all his former statements, and renewed all his denunciations, by 
voting in the Association for the Report of the Committee. He thus 
virtually challenges criticism. 

Dr. Beecher came to Galesburg about five years ago, and took 
charge of a new Church just organized for him — the "First Congre- 
gational Church of Galesburg." He has never been connected with 
Knox College in any manner, either as a member of its Faculty or 
its Board of Trustees. His public championship of Mr. Blanchard 
and the Congregational minority of the Board, in 1857, was wholly 
voluntary. He was a "passerby" and "meddled with strife not 
belonging to him," and I apprehend has had abundant reason since 
then to believe in the truth of the Proverb which announces the 
unfortunate results of such intermeddling: (Prov. 26: IV.) 

He was not content to discuss principles and questions of policy, 
but he set himself resolutely to the work of damaging the character 
of every man in the Board who voted for the resignation of Mr. 
Blanchard. After the removal of Mr. Blanchard, the Board ap- 
pointed Rev. Mr. Gale to visit the East and secure a candidate for 
the office of President. Before he reached New York City, Dr. 
Beecher sent a communication to the Independent^ w^hich was pub- 
lished, warning the public not to place confidence in Mr. Gale, whose 
conduct in removing Mr. Blanchard, he charged as "unwise, dis- 
honorable and unjust." He aimed to prevent the success of Mr. 
Gale's mission by a distinct announcement, that any one who should 
consent to become President of the College, would "involve himself 
in a conflict with the moral sense of the whole body of students and the 
community in Galesburg." He represented his views as those that 
were shared by " a very large majority of the entire community " in 
this place. 

How truly he represented the community here may be gathered 
from the fact, that the four leading Evangelical Pastors of this place, 
representing as many different denominations, immediately sent to 
the Eastern papers a card, in which they declared that Dr. Beecher's 
statement in the Independent was ?w^ true of themselves, nor, as 
they believed, of any considerable portion of their fellow-citizens. 
Dr. Beecher, not content with this attack upon Mr. Gale, while he 
was abroad upon a mission for the College, next prepared a long and 
labored document, in which the majority of the College Board, and 



118 KNOX COLLEGE. 

Mr. Gale in particular, were denounced in such terms as I trust only 
Dr. Beecher knows how to use. His address was published and scat- 
tered wide-spread through the land. The secret motive of all his 
violence maybe guessed from the following sentences in his address: 
"President Blanchard, by resigning his office, of course ceased to be a 
Trustee; and this act destroyed the balance of power ^ and by the 
substitution of a Presbyterian President, would give the College 
Avholly into the hands of Presbyterians." "It was simply a 
proposition that President Blanchard and the Congregationalists 
should lose all power, and that Mr. Gale and the Presbyterians 
should gain all power in the Institution." The awful spectre that 
so frightened him was a "Presbyterian President." Twelve Con- 
gregationalists, including the President, and nine New School 
Presbyterians constituted a very equitable "balance of power." 
The substitution of a "Presbyterian President " was a jarring of the 
"balance" which too greatly shocked the "moral sensibilities" of 
the author of the " Conflict of Ages." The reader may infer the 
character of his address from the impressions produced by it upon 
those who heard it. It was first delivered to an audience of nearly 
a thousand persons in Galesburg. During the two hours spent in 
its delivery there was no token of approval, from first to last, from 
that great assembly. On the contrary, many a man there hung his 
head with sorrow at such an address from such a man. When the 
address was ended there was no demonstration in its favor. But 
when a son of Mr. Gale arose, and in behalf of his father, who was 
yet absent for the College, denounced the address as false and slan- 
derous, then almost the whole assembly burst forth in long continued 
applause. When quiet was restored, a friend of Dr. Beecher moved 
that the audience return him a vote of thanks for his address, which 
motion was not even jDut to vote, but was substituted by a motion to 
adjourn, which was carried by a very large majority. In this man- 
ner did a Galesburg audience receive this "eminently Christian" 
address. 

Dr. Beecher next went to Chicago, to deliver the same address, 
determined to make the world acquainted with the "moral assassi- 
nation" committed by the majority of the Board of Knox College. 
Whether his address appeared to be at all personal and injurious to 
the character of those whom he opposed, may be gathered from the 
letter of Rev. Dr. Patterson already quoted, and also from the fol- 



119 

lowing remarks made by the editor of the North- Western Christian 
Advocate, in that paper, under date of August 5, 1857 : 

" We were a little surprised and humbled that this address, before a 
public audience, should be made up so largely of personal matters. 
In listening to Dr. Beecher's address one would be led to suppose 
that the parties whose conduct he described were isfnorant of lh.Q first 
principles of New Testament religion. Nor would we conclude 
that the standard of civilization and morality was very elevated. 
These disclosures are indeed painful, nor can we admire Dr. Beech- 
er's taste in thus consenting to publish them from the house-top." 

This is the impression produced by the address upon the mind of a 
stranger, concerning the majority of the Board of Knox College, of 
whom some were Presbyterian ministers, some were members of 
Presbyterian, Baptist and Episcopal churches, one was an ex-mem- 
ber of Congress, another was one of the most eminent lawyers in 
the State, and all were gentlemen of much more than ordinary in- 
telligence and worth. 

Dr. Beecher delivered his address in several of the towns of 
Northern Illinois with results most unfortunate to his own reputation. 
Even when men did not doubt the truth of his story, it was a ques- 
tion which they could not answer, why he should go retailing such 
matters through the pulpits of the State? That question has not 
been satisfactorily answered to this day. 

He went also to Quincy, and rehearsed the address in a Congre- 
gational Church in that city. Among his hearers was the Honorable 
O. H. Browning, who resides in Quincy, a member of the Board, 
and one, in Dr. Beecher's opinion, next in moral depravity to Mr. 
Gale. The sagacious Doctor, knowing his auditor, heroically sup- 
pressed, as he admitted afterward, those sentences in his address 
that were most offensively personal concerning Mr. Browning, 
which he had delivered everywhere else. When his address was 
ended, however, the friends of Mr. Browning requested the audience 
to remain to hear him iu reply. But Dr. Beecher and his friends 
took counsel together, and decided that it would not be wise to allow 
Mr. Browning to reply, and so they refused the use of the house for 
that purpose, and the audience were compelled to retire. The pas- 
tor of that church, who had lent his pulpit to Dr. Beecher to assail 
the Board, and who refused even the floor of the house to Mr. 
Browning, a Trustee of the College, for a reply, was one of the 
Congregational members of the College Board. The impression 



120 KNOX COLLEGE. 

produced by the address in Quincy will be gathered from the following 
quotations from the Daily Republican of that city. In speaking 
of it, the editor says : 

" We think it is in bad taste to carry this matter before the unin- 
terested public, and stir up a hitter controversy between denomina- 
tions when it can do no good whatever. Who is President 
Blan chard, that he should create such petty disturbances? What is 
Knox College, that we should have its affairs retailed to us through 
the press and from the pulpit, in a manner to create unhappy feeling^ 
where nothing but kindness and calmness should exist ? Among 
those who seem to be particularly exercised about the action of the 
Trustees, is Rev. Dr. Beecher, of Galesburg, who is now perambu- 
lating the State, stirring up this feeling in the churches. Last 
evening he addressed our citizens at the Center Church, on the 
subject of the difficulty, and in defense of President Blanchard. In 
the course of his remarks, we are told, he invited an answer, but 
when he got through, that privilege was refused the friends of the 
Trustees of Knox College. We look upon this discussion as one 
calculated to do no manner of good. Let it be settled quietly at 
home. Do not bring it here to fret and torment our people, and 
give the irreligious occasion for their scoffing and derisive com- 
ments." 

The same paper contained a communication from a leading citizen 
of Quincy, who spoke of the address as having charged Dr. Gale 
"with deception, and malice, and great wickedness." "Is there 
any man," asks that writer, "not absolutely dead to every senti- 
ment of justice and honor, that does not condemn this lending of a 
church for the purpose of defaming a minister and then refusing it 
for his defense ?" " If Professor Gale be guilty of the things 
charged upon him last evening, he is liable, on conviction before his 
Presbytery, to he deposed from the 'ministry?'' 

I have stated enough to show that wherever Dr. Beecher de- 
livered his address, he shocked the sensibilities of his hearers by the 
violence of his denunciations of the College Board, and of Mr. Gale 
in particular. Everywhere he gave the impression, either that he 
was himself enraged beyond all self-control, or else that those whom 
he denounced were men of much more than common depravity. 
To believe Dr. Beecher would require every one, in his own lan- 
guage, "utterly to abhor, repudiate and condemn" the majority of 
the Trustees of Knox College. 

And what other impression could be produced by an address in 
which such language as the following abounds : " Moral degrada- 
tion and the anger of God," if the Trustees are not resisted. " There 



121 

is no one thing upon which God looks with more indignation than 
upon a low and torpid state of the moral sensibility which can see 
and tolerate atrocious acts of dishonor and injustice without re- 
monstrance or rebuke, and continue to associate and co-operate 
with their authors, as if the performance of such deeds, unrepented 
of, were not deserving of disgrace and infamy,'''' Will the reader 
think for a moment what must have been the state of mind of this 
distinguished clergyman, when he could characterise the action of 
the Trustees, in merely requesting a man, with whom they were not 
satisfied, to resign, as " atrocious acts of dishonor and injustice?" 
Was that word " atrocious " when applied to such men " eminently 
Christian?" Was it no assault upon them to go through the pulpits 
of the State and into the public press, and declare that they were 
"deserving of disgrace and infamy?" 

Dr. Beecher sweeps all the sympathizers of the College Board to 
a common destruction with the Trustees. "They," he says, "who 
can coolly look on and see atrocious deeds," by which he means the 
removal of Mr. Blanchard, and nothing else, " without rebuke and 
even with pleasure, are totally rotten and corrupt. Without the 
poor excuse of temptation, and from their own inherent baseness and 
corruption, they take pleasure in evil for its own sake." This lan- 
guage, when uttered in plain English, refers to all Presbyterians, 
Episcopalians, Baptists, and others who think Mr. Blanchard was 
wisely and righteously removed from office by their representa- 
tives in the Board. " Now these men," the Trustees, " have put us 
in a position in which we are bound utterly to abhor, rebuke, and 
resist their deeds, or else sink to their moral level and fall beneath 
the wrath of God." The reader will bear in mind that all these 
Trustees, of whom Dr. Beecher speaks, except two, are members of 
evangelical churches — two of them are ministers of the Gospel. 
But although they were Christian brethren, yet he never wearied of 
denunciation against them. " If there be anything that God abhors, 
it must be such injustice as this " — the vote to request Mr. Blanchard 
to resign ! " If this is not moral assassination^ I know not what 
is." It was actuated by " enmity, hatred and malignant revenge." 
'* A state of society in which such things can be done without re- 
buke and abhorrence would reduce us to the lowest grade of moral 
degradation, and expose us to the righteous judgments of God." 
The address contains several columns of matter directed especially 
against Mr. Gale. Dr. Beecher finds even himself, however, ex- 



122 KNOX COLLEGE. 

hausted on this point at last, and thus magnanimously disposes of 
his victim: "But enough — the subject is too painful and humilia- 
ting to pursue ! I leave Mr. Gale to the just judgment of God !" 

Dr. Beecher seemed to fear that he might not carry his hearers 
with him in his opposition to the Board, and so he resorted to " the 
terrors of the law " for assistance : " Has the fear of man," he ex- 
claims, " gained so portentous an ascendancy and risen to a height 
so impious and heaven-daring that men quiver like an aspen before 
human combinations and plottings, and are not afraid of the wither- 
ing and blasting curse of Almighty God?" "What would God 
think of sach a base and cowardly indifference to wrong?" " Would 
not his curse rest upon us ?" That is, if the people should be wilhng 
to allow a Presbyterian to become President of the College ! 

These are but a few specimens of that address — and my whole 
soul loathes the rehearsal of even these few ! Is it any wonder that 
a Galesburg audience of a thousand persons listened to that address 
in silent amazement, and then overwhelmed with applause the man 
who arose and told Dr. Beecher to his face that it was false and 
slanderous ? Do we wonder that they refused it the very cheap 
praise of a vote of thanks ? Do we wonder that Doctor Beecher 
has never recovered and never will recover in this community, from 
the damaging effect of his own document ? 

Yet this address was only the beginning of a warfare which he 
carried on during the summer and autumn of 1857, after the re- 
moval of Mr. Blanchard. Week after week witnessed his articles 
in the newspapers published in Galesburg. His aim was to create 
here, if possible, a prejudice against the College Board and against 
Presbyterianism so great that no " Presbyterian President " would 
be willing to trust himself in our midst. The same spirit pervaded 
these later writings which had pervaded the address. In one of them 
Dr. Beecher says : "the majority in removing Mr. Blanchard can 
no more be defended than they could if they had poisoned or stab- 
bed him." And yet Dr. Beecher had before that time declared his 
opinion that Mr. Blanchard was not a proper man to be President 
of the College. In another he speaks of the Trustees as exhibiting 
a " spirit malignant and revengeful." In a third they are represented 
as seeking *'to gratify personal hatred and revenge and sectarian 
bigotry." A statement eminating from the majority is said by him 
to be the " obvious offspring of malignant hatred and revenge." The 
English language, fortunately, is not fertile in terms adapted to ex- 



123 

press so much wrath as Dr. Beecher had in his heart at that time. 
Its vocabulary furnished him with a few such terms as " atrocious 
acts, malignity, hatred and revenge" — ^but they have no equivalent 
synonymes. Hence he could do no better than repeat the same 
language over and over again. Yet Dr. Beecher asserts — and this 
Committee assert — and the General Association assert, that all this 
was in no manner a " personal assault," either upon Mr. Gale or 
upon the College Board, but on the contrary was in spirit and in 
diction " eminently Christian." They free him from the charge of 
a " personal attack upon Mr. Gale " by saying that " the criticisms 
which he passed were upon Dr. Gale as a public man and not as a 
private individual." Scholastic Committee ! If Dr. Gale as " a 
public man " has been guilty of " atrocious acts of dishonor," guided 
by a spirit full of "malignity and revenge," and is "deserving of 
disgrace and infamy," what remains worth savmg of the " private 
individual " of the same name ? 

On the 10th day of September, 1857, the Presbytery of Peoria 
and Knox met in Galesburg. Dr. Beecher had then been engaged 
two months in pouring out his wrath against those who had removed 
Mr. Blanchard, and against all who approved their action. Of 
those members of the majority of the College Board who were 
Presbyterians, nearly all were connected with the Churches of this 
Presbytery. The assault of Dr. Beecher was thus an assault upon 
this body of such a character that they could not be indifferent to 
it. Moreover, there was not probably in all the Churches of that 
Presbytery a member who did not feel that the removal of Mr. 
Blanchard was a wise and righteous act. Their objection to him 
was not grounded upon the fact that he was a Congregationalist, 
but u23on strong personal objections to him as a man. They ap- 
proved fully the action of the Board in removing him from his office. 
Yet Dr. Beecher had hurled maledictions, not only against the Board, 
but against all who sustained them in their action. He had even 
gone so far as to assert that those who approved of their action 
were more guilty than the members of the Board by whom the ac- 
tion had been taken. He had characterized the action of the Board 
as an " atrocious act of dishonor and injustice," and then imme- 
diately added, " God even makes it a higher grade of guilt to take 
pleasure in those who perform atrocious deeds than to do them." 
" Those who can coolly look on and see atrocious deeds, without 
rebuke and even with pleasure, are totally rotten and corrupt^ 



124: KNOX COLLEGE. 

When Dr. Beecher uttered these seDtences through the principal 
cities of the State he Jcneio to whom they applied. They were 
uttered with special reference to the Presbyterian supporters of the 
College Board. 

Under these circumstances, that Presbytery met. They spent 
the principal part of two days in a calm and careful inquiry into 
the facts of the case, and then adopted the paper of which the 
Committee so bitterly complain. In that paper, they took the fol- 
lowing action : 

" The Presbytery have noticed with great grief, the violent, per- 
sonal assaults which have been made by the Rev. Edward Beecher, 
in the public papers, and also in public addresses, upon the Rev. 
G. W. Gale, who is a member of this body. We regard the 
assault, in manner and in spirit, as an open violation of the law 
of Christ, as to the treatment of Christian brethren. Whatever 
may have been his own opinion concerning the correctness of the 
charges he has made, it is certain that he has not pursued the 
course prescribed in the New Testament, toward an erring brother. 
In view of the fact, that these very grave charges have been 
brought against Mr. Gale, without any inquiry from him as to their 
correctness, or any effort to lead him to a proper acknowledgment 
of them if correct, and that very extraordinary efforts have been 
made to extend the knowledge of them, far and wide over our 
whole land, we are compelled to say that, until the Rev. Edward 
Beecher shall undo the wrong he has committed in this matter, 
we must, as a Presbytery, regard him as unworthy of our confi- 
dence and Christian courtesy as a minister of the GospeV 

Could that Presbytery have retained its own self-respect, and 
not have done what it did? Could they have asked into their pul- 
pits, and invited to share in their deliberations as a Presbytery, a 
man who had published them to the whole world as " totally rotten 
and corrupt?" Yet, Dr. Beecher complains of this action as tend- 
ing to damage his Christian standing throughout the country. Of 
course it does — and just so long as he continues to vindicate his 
conduct, and thus compel that Presbytery to hold him where they 
now do, he must expect to suffer more and more damage from that 
action. He has been invited again and again to meet the Presby- 
tery and explain his conduct if he could, so as to allow them to 
recall their action against him. But he refuses to do it. He must 
rest assured, that just so long as he continues to be "joined to his 
idols," just so long will this Presbytery "let him alone." A most 
unhappy affair this is, but the whole responsibility of it rests en- 
tirely upon Dr. Beecher. The Committee, in their Report, ask with 



"eights of congregation alists." 125 

an exultant tone, "Did the Presbytery think that their mere 
assertion would destroy the reputation of Edward Beecher ? " To 
this question I reply that the Presbytery had no ambition to rival 
Dr. Beecher in the work of destroying reputations. They were 
and are content to leave him alone in his glory, so far as that 
work is concerned. But not even " the reputation of Edward 
Beecher ! " can deliver him from the crushing weight of that action 
of Presbytery, so calm and so just, until " he shall undo the wrong " 
which he has committed. 

15. The Committee have labored very earnestly to prove that Dr. 
Gale has been guilty of many " inaccuracies and self-contradictions" 
in the statements which he has made at different times, concerning 
the College. Their efforts to destroy public confidence in his state- 
ments show very clearly that they regard him as an important 
witness. He originated the Plan which resulted in founding Knox 
College. He has been here, closely connected with it, from the be- 
ginning of its history. He is better acquainted with all that history 
than any other man. Hence, his testimony will have great weight 
with the public, unless in some way its force can be weakened. 
This the Committee have worked hard to do. Whether this effort 
on their part, toward a man who has done the public so much good 
service, is magnanimous, I leave that public to judge. However, if 
Dr. Gale has been as unwise and inconsistent as this Committee 
represent him, I will offer no apology for him, except merely to re- 
mark that the men who could publish as truth such a document as 
this "Rights of Congregationalists," ought to be the last men in 
the world to taunt him with "inaccuracies and self-contradictions." 
The public will be able to judge correctly concerning his statements 
when the following things are taken into account : 

First, then, it is not denied that, in a few instances, Dr. Gale has 
been inaccurate in some of his statements. But these inaccuracies 
are of trifling importance, and do not relate in any case to the main 
fact involved. They are confined wholly to details and matters of 
minor moment. They are just such inaccuracies as almost every 
man would fall into, who related matters which had occurred many 
years before, without first consulting documents. As an instance 
of this kind, over which the Committee make quite an ado, Mr. Gale 
stated in one of his published articles, that Mr. Simmons had started 
to go West on his own business, before he was appointed on the 
Purchasing Committee ; when the truth was, as Mr. Simmons testi- 



126 KNOX COLLEGE. 

fies, he was notified of his appointment before he left his home. 
This is one of the most noted instances of actual inaccuracy pointed 
out by the Committee ! '-'- Ridiculus musP'' 

Again, it is admitted here that Mr. Gale has sometimes stated 
facts in general terms, and also amounts in round numbers, 
which were either a little more or a little less than the exact fact, 
although true in substance. As a marked instance of this sort of 
general statement noticed by the Committee, Mr. Gale once wrote, 
a year and a half ago, that " the names of Simmons and Tompkins 
were not inserted in the title to the land " bought by the Purchasing 
Committee ; when the truth was, that the name of Simmons, but 
not of Tompkins, was inserted in the deeds for the 410 acres of 
cultivated and timber land first bought, but in no others. More 
than 10,000 acres were bought afterward, in the deeds for which, 
neither of their names appeared. Mr. Gale's reputation will probably 
survive that "inaccuracy" which appeared so great in the eyes of 
the Committee that they devote to it one entire article, under the 
capital letter "K" in their Appendix. But now notice this, that the 
Committee, after showing that Mr. Simmons' name did appear in 
the deeds for 410 acres, then leave the public to draw the broad 
inference that his name is found in the deeds for all the other 
10,000 acres ! Who was most " inaccurate " in this matter ? 

Again, it must be borne in mind, that much of the pretended 
" inaccuracy " of Mr. Gale consists in the mere fact that his state- 
ments do not agree with those of the Committee, This Committee 
"investigated" so thoroughly all the points involved in their Report, 
and proved them so clearly, by comparing them "paragraph by 
paragraph with the evidence sustaining each position," that any 
man whose statement differs from theirs is, of course, " inaccurate." 
I can say nothing in defense of Mr. Gale, on this charge. The 
Committee will find him " inaccurate " beyond all hope of remedy, 
if they make then* Report the standard of truth. 

But once again, it is a serious fact that the most important errors 
charged against Mr. Gale, result wholly from a studied perversion of 
his language, whether by the Committee, or by some one else for 
them, I do not say. For instance, when Mr. Gale declares the fact 
that the Subscribers were not all prepared to pay their subscriptions 
at the time the Purchasing Committee were sent out, the subscrip- 
tions not yet being due, and that therefore he and Mr. Ferris bor- 
rowed at the bank $10,000, the Committee so pervert this clear 



"rights of congkegationalists." 127 

statement of the exact truth as to make Mr. Gale prove that those 
Subscribers 7iever paid their subscription ! On pp. 58 and 59 of the 
Report, occur several just such instances as the above. I cannot be 
persuaded that the man who drew up that Appendix was ignorant 
of the fact that he was making Mr. Gale prove the very opposite of 
what he has always explicitly claimed to be true. The statement 
of Mr. Gale was clear enough. It was possible to pervert it, 
and accordingly it was perverted. As it is not my object to 
answer every charge of this kind of inaccuracy brought against Mr. 
Gale, but only to indicate where the answer may be found in all 
these cases, I will leave this remarkable Report without further ex- 
amination. The reader must feel by this time that the Report is 
totally unworthy of confidence. The men who drew it up never 
investigated, as they were required to do, and as the public have 
supposed was done, the great questions which they have nevertheless 
ventured to answer so positively. The materials of that Report were 
prepared for them when they came to Galesburg. While here they 
carefully avoided the office of the College Treasurer and Secretary, 
where they could have found documentary evidence for every im- 
portant point to be determined. They preferred rather to collect 
here and there such random statements of interested parties as could 
be used to prove a conclusion already adopted. These materials 
they wove into a Report which has been scattered through all the 
West and the East, wherever it could possibly do injury to Knox 
College. 

And now I ask this Committee, what they will do with their Re- 
port? Will they continue to circulate it as they have done thus far, 
with all its errors, to perpetuate the wrong against the College which 
has already been wrought by it ? The Committee cannot free them- 
selves from responsibility in this matter. They have wronged the 
College — undesignedly, " through ignorance," I trust. But now, 
when they read the College records — when they see the facts con- 
tained in the books of its Treasury — when they hear the voice of 
its founders, will they disregard all this, and still allow their Report 
to go as though it were true ? They cannot deny the truth and 
force of the documents published in this pamphlet. If they think 
they are not correct, or do not correctly represent the facts of the 
case, they are bound to show it by examining those documents for 
themselves. The Secretary and Treasurer of the College would 
gladly have given them the opportunity to do this when they were 



128 KNOX COLLEGE. 

in Galesburg. They will as gladly give them this opportunity here- 
after if they desire it. Those officers certify that the documents 
here published are correctly given, and do present the true history 
of the College. It is not, therefore, a question of judgment, or of 
veracity, between me and the Committee. The question lies be- 
tween the Committee, and the College and its founders. If the 
College records and other documents are not correct, and if the 
founders of the College are mistaken concerning themselves, the 
Committee must show it ; or else they must not only recall their 
Report, but also inform the public that they were mistaken, and that 
the Report is not true. If the Committee mean to deal honestly with 
the College they must do this. If they mean to deal honestly with 
their own denomination and with the public, they must do this. The 
College, the Church, and the whole public, will turn their eyes upon 
this Committee to see what they will do. 

Knox College was founded by wise and good men, who conse- 
crated it to the interests of sound learning, and of manly culture in 
the service of " Christ and the Church." They founded it in order 
that it might aid in establishing the kingdom of Christ among men. 
To accomplish this noble mission it must be administered with wis- 
dom and justice and the highest Christian principle. Its founders 
were not ignorant of this fact, nor were they indifferent to it. That 
it might be directed always toward the end for which it had been 
established, they expected and intended that it would be controlled 
mainly by men belonging, like themselves, to the Presbyterian 
Church. By this, however, they did not mean to subject it to any 
" ecclesiastical " control, nor did they mean that it was to be in any 
sense a "sectarian" College. No denomination, as such, was ever 
to have any voice in its control. It was to be used, not to build up 
a sect, but to educate youth, of every and any sect. It was to be a 
College for the benefit of the whole Church and the whole State. 
That it may become such a College, it must be elevated above the 
reach of sectarian and denominational strife. Its Board must not 
be the scene of angry struggles between jarring sectaries for party 
pre-eminence. There must be no such equipoise of rival sects as to 
cause the Board to hesitate to appoint any evangelic man to its 
corps of instructors, who is exactly qualified for the post, from any 
fear that his weight will be thrown into the one scale or the other, 
and disturb the " balance." The word " sect " or " denomination" 
must not be heard or known in its Board, except merely to keep that 



KNOX COLLEGE. 129 

Board true to the Church from which the College sprung, and thus 
keep the College true to the end for which it was called into exist- 
ence. This is what its founders intended for Knox College. It was 
administered true to this principle during its early years. After a 
time, secretly and steadily, a rival " sect " sprung up within its 
Board, and, in the hour of its strength, struggled hard to make the 
College " sectarian." Against this attempt the majority of the 
Board, men of various denominations, set themselves, resolutely and 
righteously. They were and are determined that Knox College 
shall be what its founders intended it to be. It will thus be planted 
upon the same platform as that which has so long given stability and 
success to our Eastern Colleges. In New England, every College 
but one, is so under the predominating control of some one denomi- 
nation, as to lift them above all danger from sectarian strife. In 
Harvard alone, do we hear the sound of war, and the cause there is the 
departure from the broad principle which gives peace to all the rest. 
Unitarian Congregationalism and Orthodox Congregationalism in 
New England, although one sprang out of the other, as did Minerva 
from the brain of Jove, cannot live peacefully together, and cannot 
harmonize, even in the control of a College. Hence Harvard is the 
arena of strife. Yale, and Williams, and Amherst, have no such 
trouble, because Orthodox Con<:^reG:ationalists are in them the su- 
preme power. While human nature remains anywhere near what it 
is now, no equal division of denominations in a College Board, un- 
accompanied by strife, will long be possible. Slowly, it may be, 
but surely one party will gain the permanent ascendancy over the 
others. In the last number of the Neio Englander is an article 
beaded " Denominational Colleges," by a writer well known as 
President of one of our Western Colleges. The arguments of that 
writer, while evidently aimed at some other institution than the one 
over which he presides, are, nevertheless, like that famous weapon of 
the warrior of Madagascar, which, when hurled, however far away, 
is said always to return and strike at the very feet of him who hurled 
it. In that article the writer uses this language : " It is within the 
memory of men yet not far from the meridian of life, that the 
thought had scarcely been entertained by any mind, that a College 
should be in any sense the representative of a sect; or, that such 
Colleges as Princeton, and Columbia, and Yale, were not suitable 
for the education of any American youth, whatever might be the 
religious views of his parents." Leaving the writer to reconcile, if 
9 



130 KNOX COLLEGE. 

he can, this language witli the evident bearing of his whole argu- 
ment, I desire heartily to commend all that is involved in the refer- 
ence he has made to the three Colleges named. Those Colleges 
have long been eminently successful. They have deserved, as they 
have received abundantly, the confidence and patronage of the 
public. No discord disturbs the harmony of their operations. And 
the reason is, that each one is under the controlling influence of 
members of a single denomination. Princeton is well known as 
Presbyterian, Columbia as Episcopalian, and Yale as Congrega- 
tional. We ask only that Knox College may be planted upon that 
same foundation, Avhich has proved so strong and immovable in the 
case of Yale and Columbia, and Princeton. Its founders placed it 
upon exactly such a foundation. There it will be kept by its Board 
hereafter. That which renders Eastern Colleges stable will give 
stability to Colleges at the West. And nothing else will. 

Knox College is open to all denominations and to all classes alike. 
It ofiers to educate a Congregational youth just as fully as it does 
one who is Presbyterian. And this offer extends to all denomina- 
tions. Congregationalists complain that they can no longer patron- 
ize it — that they are driven from it. How this can be I do not 
know, unless it be impossible for them to patronize a College not 
wholly their own. Presbyterian young men find no difficulties of 
conscience in attendino^ the ConoTes^ational Colleofes of New Eng- 
land. Why may not a Congregational youth attend a College that 
is largely controlled, though not wholly, by his own denomination 
here at the West? Does the partial Presbyterianism of the Board 
affect the quality of the studies, so that the very same course of in- 
struction, which was of measureless benefit under a Congregational 
Board, ceases to be valuable when the " sect" loses power? Have 
our Congregational brethren in Illinois at last come to that? I do 
not-think so. The Congregational body of this State has been misled 
by a few men, who have wished to avenge themselves upon the College 
for refusing to be j)erverted from its original design. They have been 
persuaded that they have been deprived of all their rights here. 
They have been led to believe that the College is henceforth to be 
used for narrow and sectarian ends. All this is false. The narrow- 
ness and " sectarianism," that for a few years past were sinking it 
in the popular esteem throughout the State, are now removed. The 
College now is devoted to a higher mission than that of merely re- 
flecting the opinions and peculiarities of 07ie man. It has a noble 



KNOX COLLEGE. 131 

endowment, which is becoming more fully available every day. It 
has a Faculty more in numbers and wiser in experience than it has 
ever had before ; and they are all of one heart, and are all devoted 
to the prosperity of the College. The dividing line of denomina- 
tions is not known within the sphere of the College Faculty. The 
College buildings are new and massive structures — an ornament to 
the city, and an honor to the Institution. The course of studies is 
the same as that of the first Colleges of New England. Knox 
College is an honor to the State of Illinois. If Congregationalists 
cannot patronize such an Institution, the fault is with them and not 
with the College. The College was founded in prayer — it was con- 
secrated to the good of man — it has secured an endowment by a 
marvellous providence — it has advanced with rapid strides to the 
front rank of similar institutions — it has manifestly a noble destiny 
before it. The sympathies of the people, who dwell on these broad 
prairies, cannot be turned away from such an institution. Its pkos- 

PEEITT IS THEIR GLOET — ITS ADVERSITY WILL BE THEIR MISFORTITN-E. 

Whoever, therefore, may oppose it, and whatever tem23orary evils it 
may suffer, it will still move onward, in unwavering faith in that 
sublime truth unfolded in those hopeful words — Jehovah-jieeh ! 



jrx£ 6, 



KNOX COLLEGE, 



BY WHOM 



FOUN^DED A.ND ENDO'WED ; 



A REVIEW 



A. :E»-A.i«fl:i»i3:rjBT eittitiijEid 



RIGHTS OF CONGREGATIONALISTS IN KNOX COLLEGE." 



BY Ji ~W. BA.ILEY. 



CHICAGO: 

PRESS & TRIBUNE BOOK & JOB PRINTING OFFICE, 51 CLARK ST, 

1860. 
























>> ' .3^^ 


j»j>^ >^^ 




►:>>^^^ 


J>J- '■ T3 


►:>xv>T5 


__> -■ J£^ 


JR>-^ '•:^:3i 


) , . "2Z3Pt " 


:>y> >>:^ 


















f£>^ >3^3£ 






^^ >>s*:^ 



3^ >33 






:> :>:> 

"^5 



"„—**• 


>_» _»>^> 


►-3» ' 


> -» ;>->•-> , 


^i 


►:^J^ 3iC>:2) 


^^l^^ 


i*->^ »3> 


^-__3i^ 




^:> r> -.. 


>3'^33i 


ri5 ^ 


^ ^» D 


^ Xl3 


'^^'^d 


^ '»>J 




»►>__; 


^.-->i^ 


Z3K*- 


* I3ifc 




>>DK] 


^> ^ 


3i» »^' 


ASt 


>->: 


:^^;>j 


,X>^ 


"^—-3 


■^»^ 




^ -^__I3B^J33J) 




?L> Z3li^ JJ») 


-^— -^ 


^ ■^^^^'^-^^ ' > 


-3^_^-> 


— ^i^iH' ~__>rjj ," ^^ 


^^ 


^33fcfc 1>^ 1 ' v^ 


^I> 


^]5jfcs»~">> ^^ 


rJi>:^ 


^3^<«&^-> > ''%i 






*a^^^ 



•JO) ^?_ 



>=:^^^^-^^ 

^:*>>>^i:^ 



->>.^.>i>'" 

>^^>-:^-^ 





















^ :m»^sr>^ 






■:3s>::s> 



^Kf^^Jf.^^Ktl 















2>)1 



^^ 



e^^ 






^3»aE^.z>5 






.^^^ 









?2^ 



?^:33ai>' 



j»;.>>""3-^ 












^^ 






e2>l 






